Along the rescue trail
Texas woman is self-taught cottontail saver
DENTON, Texas — 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.”
Rabbit paintings are everywhere in her home, 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.
“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, Leggett said. 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 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. 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 & Wildlife Department wildlife district leader.
“Typically boom years follow rain,” Mote said. “We’re in the third year of really good habitat conditions.”
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.
A recent 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 of 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.”