DENTON — Bunny decor dominates Diana Leggett's home, and she's got the houseguests to match.

"This is bunny world," she said. "This is not a living room anymore."

There are paintings of rabbits all over her house, a bunny silhouette on her front door, a rabbit lamp in her living room and miniature glass rabbits on the mantelpiece.

Then there are her roommates: the two rescue rabbits and two chinchillas in her used-to-be living room, the nine baby Eastern cottontails in a handmade pen on her kitchen table and the seven injured rabbits in the "rehab room."

And out back, waiting to be fed, are about 60 domestic bunnies, each one with a name and almost all former pets before they were dumped by their owners.

Leggett has a full-time job as a paralegal, but she's also the sole employee of WildRescue Inc./Rabbit Rescue and spends every free moment rescuing and rehabilitating domestic rabbits and wild cottontails.

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"I taught myself everything," the 64-year-old rabbit guru said. "I swear, I had to be a healer or a doctor or something in a past life because this came so naturally to me."

People from around the state call, text and send videos asking Leggett what to do about bunnies in their lawns.

It's the former pets that take up most of her time, though. They flood her backyard, nearly all of them unadoptable because of their color or injuries, according to Leggett.

She estimates that a quarter of the domestic rabbits will find a loving home, while the others will live out the rest of their lives in her bunny sanctuary.

Unlike many of the domestic rabbits, there's a second chance at freedom for the Eastern cottontails, the most common species in Texas.

But she's overwhelmed. Few people in the area know how to rehabilitate wild rabbits, and local residents in the area know to come to her.

Leggett estimates that she receives up to 30 calls each day during high season in the spring, and the number of cottontails she rehabilitates each year is increasing.

The population increase is likely because of the amount of rainfall North Texas has received in the last several years, according to Kevin Mote, Texas Parks and Wildlife wildlife district leader.

"Typically boom years follow rain," Mote said. "We're in the third year of really good habitat conditions."

1 / 12Diana Leggett, feeding her outdoor colony, has a reputation as a rabbit whisperer and often gets calls from homeowners hoping to hand over an injured bunny. (Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer) 2 / 12Twenty bunnies call the inside of Dianna Leggett's house home, some living in her kitchen, others in her living room and several injured rabbits in the rehab room.(Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer) 3 / 12Some bunnies are harder to find adoptive homes than others, whether because of their coloring or injuries.(Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer) 4 / 12Many of the 80 bunnies Dianna Leggett cares for have names, including Barney and Emily, who live in her home.(Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer) 5 / 12A chinchilla named Summer lives among the home-based colony of rabbits in Denton.(Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer) 6 / 12Some of the rabbits she keeps in her backyard refuge will live out their days there.(Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer) 7 / 12About a quarter of the domestic rabbits living in the backyard sanctuary will find adoptive homes.(Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer) 8 / 12Barney the bunny lives in a cage inside Dianna Leggett's home, which features a "rehab room" for rabbits on the mend. (Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer) 9 / 12Rabbit feed is never in short supply at Dianna Leggett's home in Denton.(Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer) 10 / 12There's been a bumper crop of bunnies this year, thanks to a mild winter and a wet spring.(Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer) 11 / 12Rabbits take refuge in Dianna Leggett's home until they find an adoptive family or, for the wild ones, find freedom.(Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer) 12 / 12Diana Leggett released an Eastern Cottontail rabbit after being taken care of at South Lakes Park in Denton, Texas on July 29, 2017. (Nathan Hunsinger/The Dallas Morning News)(Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer)

Jacqueline Sutherland, an animal services officer and wildlife rehabilitator in Dallas-Fort Worth, has also noticed the long rabbit seasons in the state. The first litters of the year are coming as early as late February thanks to mild winters, she said.

"If the weather's right and all the resources are there," she said, "they're just going to keep doing what they're doing."

Sutherland provides basic treatment to injured cottontails and then sends them along to Leggett.

"They're so delicate that anything other than that I just take to her," she said. "They're one of the hardest species to rehabilitate."

After a few weeks of rehabilitation, Leggett makes plans to release the wild cottontails on property that's been approved by the city of Denton.

Saturday marked the last day of rehab for one 3-week-old cottontail. The rabbit was finally healthy enough to make it in the "wild" — one of the nearby parks in the city.

With eyes wide and ears perked, the cottontail sat in a crate that Leggett placed just a couple feet away from the woods. She opened the crate, and after a few moments of hesitation, the rabbit hopped into the brush.

"There's nothing better after all that hard work," she said as she watched the cottontail hop into the shrubs. "There's just nothing better."

Caring for baby rabbits, or kits, can be a delicate process, experts say. Don't assume they're orphans just because you don't see the mother. (Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer)

Look but don't touch

Because wild rabbits are so difficult to care for, homeowners should know what to do if they spot an injured rabbit or a nest in their grass.