Why is the foot the lucky part?
Maybe a trap with just a foot left in it, is thought to mean the rabbit was lucky enough to get away? But in real life that was just a crippled, probably due to die of infection rabbit.
Why not the tail? More likely a lot of critters can slip a trap with the loss of a tail and survive. Though a bunny tail is short and very close to the bunny fun parts. Ouch! Not tonight dear. And a critter that nearly sits right down in a trap is pretty dumb. Best culled.
I want to carry around a live bunny. It escaped the hutch of a person who raises bunnies for food. Right after a night of wild sex with multiple other bunnies, that was so rough and good, it broke open the cage. It ran away and was crossing the road. The driver of the SUV full of heavily armed rabbit hunters was startled and lost control. The SUV careened through the woods, right along a trap line, springing all of them. The bunny was concerned and followed into the woods to see if it could help. There is more to the story… The tail ends with me. And a contented well fed bunny that watches as I buy lottery tickets, every week, a hundred at a time.