Little brown bunnies seem to be everywhere. People are seeing them in their gardens, in driveways, even in the streets. What gives?

It could be that rabbits are living up to their reputation as virile breeders ... or that they're getting dumped by families after the Easter holiday.

Sue Brennan runs a shelter for bunnies in Gig Harbor called Rabbit Haven. She’s spent the last 35 years rescuing domestic rabbits that have been abandoned.

After Easter and the end of the school year are popular times for families to “dump” rabbits that are no longer wanted, says Brennan. Domestic rabbits are the third most popular house pet in the nation after dogs and cats, but she says people adopt them without realizing how much work and money it takes to care for them ... and children don’t want the responsibility.

She says if you see bunnies in the wild that are any other color than the flecked brown shade of wild eastern cottontails, those are domestic rabbits. Domestics live and have their babies, called kits, in burrows whereas wild cottontails nest in a land depression or divot.

Since they have no survival skills, domestic rabbits become easy prey. Brennan recommends you try and catch them and take them to a rescue shelter like Rabbit Haven or your local Humane Society. Interestingly, Brennan says domesticated rabbits can’t reproduce with wild cottontails because of a missing gene link.