We lost one of the rabbits on Sunday. I woke up Saturday to find that once again the rabbits had escaped. This time they must of pushed the lid open (securing it was going to be our next project). In a panic I woke M up from his weekend sleep in before 8 in the morning. We hunted around our house for over an hour before giving up. M got a bite from a tick for his efforts. After that we gave up and went back in the house. By the time M had his chiropractic appointment, we still hadn't set eyes on them. I had a feeling that they were in the bushes between the garage and road, because Dog spent most of the morning sniffing around there.

We found the first rabbit soon after we got back. She was in the Wisteria patch, but not for long. She hopped away when we approached. M and I ended up chasing her up into the bushes near the road. After a few embarrassing mishaps we finally managed to catch her. We'd left Dog in the fenced off yard.

Later that afternoon, I let Dog out the front yard. Right away, he jumped the ledge behind the garage (it's quite a jump, taller than me), from my vantage point on the porch I could see the missing rabbit. I called out to M, and he came bounding out. He and Dog spent over an hour, trying to search the area. Unfortunately we discovered it was filled with hollows and burrows that she could easily escape into. Dog spent quite a while at one particular spot.

We decided to set the possum trap in the area, hoping to capture her before nightfall. I was worried about foxes and snakes. A few hours later, Dog was hanging around the back door. I had an inkling that Rabbit might have come back, but was in the middle of something and promptly forgot to check.

We decided to go for another walk later that afternoon. We spotted her in the fenced off yard, so I ran through the house and out the back door to see if I could tempt her back in the hutch. Unfortunatly Dog had also spotted her from outside the fence and was whining and growling. So we ended up chasing her around, M and Dog on the outside, while I was in the back. She jumped through the hole in the deer fence and went charging into the bushes. Dog and M followed close behind. Dog was the quickest. He managed to hold her down with his paw. He wasn't sure what to do, he just sat there with his paw on top of her. Rabbit was frozen in fear. Unfortunately she never recovered. I found her dead in the hutch the next morning.

Now we have a depressed and lonely rabbit. We're thinking of getting her a guinea pig to play with instead of another rabbit.