Mr. McGregor's Pain

From:  The Tale of Peter Rabbit

"First he ate some lettuces and some French beans; and then he ate some radishes;

And then, feeling rather sick, he went to look for some parsley.

But round the end of a cucumber frame, who should he meet but Mr. McGregor!

Mr. McGregor was on his hands and knees planting out young cabbages, but he jumped up and ran after Peter, waving a rake and calling out, 'Stop thief!'"

I feel Mr. McGregor's pain.  

For a number of evenings, a rabbit has been making his way into my garden and filling itself on my broccoli, cabbages, zucchini, bean plants, lettuces, and even sunflower leaves!  Beautiful little zucchinis lie half eaten and I can even see the buck-toothed teeth marks in their flesh.  Green beans that were growing strongly have been eaten down to just a stub sticking out of the ground.  Broccoli  and cabbage plants that have been heroically fighting an onslaught of flea beetles show up in the morning with a number - if not all -  of their leaves missing.  

This is no cute and cuddly little Peter Rabbit coming into my garden!  It's a horrible eating machine!

For the past two nights, as I've gone down to check the chickens and shut the chicken coop door I've seen the rabbit running away from my garden.  For two nights, I've run to get the BB gun, pump it up, and juggling a flashlight and gun I've tried to rid my garden of this voracious pest!  I'm sure I've missed.

One day soon, I hope the family of this bunny, who insists on eating from my garden, hears these words from The Tale of Peter Rabbit :

"'Now my dears,' said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, 'you may go into the fields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGregor's (insert here, Mrs. Fitzgerald's) garden: your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor (Mrs. Fitzgerald).'