the plight of the rosemary

We have had a thriving rosemary plant just outside our backdoor where we plant our tomatoes and peppers each year. What started out as a little seedling became a great supply of rosemary. We loved it. Well...

(Imagine a picture here of our beloved plant.)
We were outside the other day and realized that - just like that - the rosemary was gone. GONE. Like someone took an edger and hacked it off. Because that's all you can see now coming up from the soil. A small branch that was once the trunk of our poor plant. Are you kidding me?

There is no way the plight of the rosemary is due to weather. Or our dogs. Or just about anything else we can think of. So we've decided either the man that does our yard thought it was a weed (really?) or someone came off the alley and coveted the plant so much they decided to steal it. I really don't want to believe it's either of these things, but there seems to be no other explanations if you consider the way it looks now. Seriously...what are the other possibilities?

It's a sad story. We miss it and we'll have to figure something out. Mama Swingle has a gigantic rosemary bush. Maybe she'll cut us a small sample and we'll start over. After all, rosemary is part of the recipe for one of my favorite snacks: sweet and savory mixed nuts.