runaway bunny!

we have a bunny named Lilo. all summer Lilo has been escaping. she digs her way out. no matter how much i re-enforce her cage area, put rocks in front of fence and behind fence, she always mangages to find a way out. i've spent several hours chasing her and trying to corral her back into her pen, etc. I even had horrible poison ivy went i went to Ohio from chasing her through the wooded areas. when it starts getting cold, we bring her inside and she stays downstairs in the basment with dillon. so recently we brought her inside (not that it is really very cold!),but i had been outside and i watched a hawk literally stalk her for about 10 minutes. he finally flew away after realizing that Lilo probably would be too heavy to carry off! but anyway, i found that quite disturbing and even though she LOVES running around free and eating whatever wild yummy plants she can find, the thought of a hawk or the fox taking her was bothering me. so in she came. but then i started feeling really bad that she was stuck downstairs. so today while at Petsmart i had this brillant idea to buy her a leash. i figured i could take her outside and walk her around for a little bit. this way she gets her exercise, some sunshine, some vegetation, etc. so all was going well until she hopped under a bench. she got her self manuevered in there and i finally realized that i would have to drop the leash and then pick it up as she hopped out to the other side. so i let it go and then moved over to where she was (literally took me 1 second). then i saw this blur and POOF, like magic she was gone! i told my husband it was like being at a magic show, where one minute you see them, the next you don't! i asked him, do we have an old abandoned well under this bench that i don't know about - because i swear she's fallen down the bunny hole! we spent the next hour combing the area to try and find her to no avail. i couldn't understand where she went and how did i not see her hopping off? it was really strange. i told jeff that she was like Steve McQueen and she was in "The Great Escape". she's been plotting this ever since i took her downstairs. it was really bothering me all day as then i was picturing her getting her leash tangled up and choking. i'd find her bunny bones sometime in the spring!

so finally after awhile i decided to go into the way back of our property where she's been known to go and sure enough there she was! the leash/vest is gone, no clue where that went. i tried to chase her back into the yard but didn't happen. she's definitely happy out there. so i brought her food and water back out to the pen area still up and will try to catch her coming in for a snack!