Dolly's Dream Home Rabbit Rescue, P. O. Box 1229, St. Charles, MO (2026)

10/13/2026

No va**ng, no candles, no plug-ins, no essential oils, no Febreeze, no incense, no spraying perfume in their rooms, absolutely no smoking, etc. around bunnies.

Cobbler says all of the above hurt his lungs and can cause severe respiratory distress.

Rabbits have remarkably delicate respiratory systems, so it is our job that they remain healthy.

If their room isn’t smelling the best, change their litter box more. Don’t put a plug-in or spray their room.

If you need to light a candle, do it at the other end of the house.

Your bunnies love you and it’s your job to keep them safe.

10/13/2026

This morning, someone left a comment on one of our posts that we haven't stopped thinking about.

"Rabbits are the easiest pet to keep badly."

And WOW. What an incredibly accurate statement. Think about it.

You can put a rabbit in a tiny cage, feed it pellets every day, give it a water bottle, and never take it to the vet.

And that rabbit might survive for years.

Meanwhile, it's living with untreated dental disease, has no room to exercise, and has never experienced over half the things that make being a rabbit enjoyable.

And the owner? They might truly believe they're doing everything right.

That's what makes rabbits so tricky. They're prey animals. They're exceptionally good at hiding discomfort and they don't have advocates all over.

A rabbit isn't going to tell you its enclosure is too small. It isn't going to explain that it needs unlimited hay or that their tummy hurts.

It's just going to keep being a rabbit.

We meet SO many people who love their bunnies dearly, but were given completely incorrect information about how to care for them.

And that's exactly why education is such a huge part of what we do.

At Dolly's, we offer a completely FREE virtual rabbit education course. You don't have to adopt from us. You don't have to live in Missouri. You don't even have to own a rabbit yet! Just click here: https://forms.gle/rNTYqNijXz9Qc65i8

We want people to have the information they need to give these little guys the lives they deserve…because there's a pretty enormous difference between keeping a rabbit alive and giving a rabbit a good life.

And every bunny deserves to have a good life.

10/13/2026

Remember Also Thomas? Well, he's been adopted and his new name is Perfect Tommy.

It's the most fitting name he could've possibly gotten.

For those who don't remember, Perfect Tommy came to us with megacolon, a condition that makes managing his digestive health and keeping him clean especially challenging.

He was always a little scraggly, especially around his bum, where he was a bit naked. No fur.

In fact, we lovingly nicknamed him Chicken Cutlet for a while. It wasn’t exactly the most flattering nickname, but if you'd seen this little man, you'd understand.

Because of his condition, Perfect Tommy needs some extra help with daily care. Finding a family willing to take that on isn't easy.

But Perfect Tommy found his people, no doubt about it.

Here's what his new mom says, “Perfect Tommy is a LOVE BUG. Every morning we wake up and snuggle - he spends a good half hour just getting his kisses out. Then he runs and plays through the house most of the day, stopping in for pets at my desk. The kids get home during the sleepy part of his day so he likes to lay out long next to them and doze in the afternoon.

Luckily he's very clever. He house and potty trained quickly and reliably. We've worked out a good system with washable puppy pads and weekly butt baths for his special needs. His fur is returning clean and fluffy. He's eating well and filling out a little around his spine.“

HALF AN HOUR of morning kisses. Every single day.

This little man went from being our resident Chicken Cutlet to having an entire family rearrange their mornings around his affection.

And his family has figured out a routine that works beautifully for his special needs. His fur is growing back, he's putting on some weight, and he's enjoying life as a very loved house bunny.

Megacolon doesn't disappear just because a bunny gets adopted. Perfect Tommy will always need extra care and his family knows that.

But look at what a difference the right home can make.

From Chicken Cutlet to Perfect Tommy.

Quite the promotion, if you ask us.

Want to make more stories like this possible? Join our online auction, going on this week only: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1L9nTzi6K1/?mibextid=wwXIfr

10/13/2026

How's Champion doing? Well, her foster family almost had to completely disassemble a recliner, thanks to her, the other day. So we'd say she's doing pretty well!

Champion came to us several months ago with osteomyelitis, a serious bone infection. It's actually the same condition our sweet Dentist is currently battling - just 10x worse.

Her back legs were horribly infected, had been actively bleeding for months on a wire cage, and she had such a severe eye infection that we weren't sure she'd be able to keep her infected legs or eye.

She's been on medication ever since and we've been keeping a very close eye on her.

But guess what?

So far, NO surgery needed.

Her back legs are permanently misshapen from the neglect and infection she suffered before coming to Dolly's. And while she'll always look a little different, Champion seems to have missed the memo that her legs aren't quite like everyone else's.

In fact, she recently managed to squeeze herself underneath her foster mom's recliner.

The recliner was bunny-proofed.

Champion said, “Watch this!”.

Her foster family nearly had to take the entire thing apart to get her out. Which is impressive for a bunny whose legs once had us wondering if she'd ever be able to get around comfortably.

We talk a lot about special needs rabbits, because so many people see a physical difference, then immediately assume a poor quality of life.

Meanwhile, Champion is out here committing furniture related crimes. Her legs don’t slow her down a bit.

Disabilities can come with challenges and some rabbits need lifelong accommodations. But different doesn't automatically mean suffering. Champion is comfortable, active, and quite confident in her ability to fit into places she has absolutely no business being.

We're so proud of how far this little girl has come.

And we'd like to formally apologize to her foster family's recliner.

10/12/2026

30 minutes ago, this was a post in a homeschooling Facebook group, called Unhinged Homeschool Moms. Please read the full post.

“Feeling disheartened and need your experiences, mamas 🙏

Yesterday we bought two baby rabbits for the kids. They were so excited, and I'd even printed a rabbit unit so we could learn about them together. Before we bought them, we explained that rabbits are fragile and need gentle care, not like our four dogs. We thought it would be a good way to teach gentle care.

At home, my 5-year-old kept carrying them around, making them "dance" and "fly". I get that he was excited, but we told him many times to be gentle and to stop. By the end of the day we were fed up. We tried not to shout, but I got really frustrated and raised my voice, and we told him that if he couldn't take care of them, we would take them away. Not my best moment. We never hit our kids, and we work hard to move away from punishment towards a more gentle, nervous-system-aware way of parenting. But I'll admit we sometimes get there with the shouting, especially when they don't listen and it starts getting dangerous.

Today he put a rabbit on a pouf and made it slide. The pouf tipped over, he pressed down on it thinking it was funny, and the rabbit died. The other one had diarrhoea, maybe from being handled too much, and it died too.

I got very angry. I'm also feeling bad because I don't want to traumatise him, but I need the lesson to land. He's a kind boy who loves animals. He didn't mean any harm. For me there are two lessons here:

1. Learning to be gentle with fragile animals (we'd never had any before).

2. When we say stop, you stop. This is the big one. We want them to explore and experiment, but both my kids (5 and 2½) keep going after we say stop, and today showed why that matters.

I keep asking myself where this comes from. I've looked in the mirror, and honestly we don't act like this at home. We homeschool, so the only other kids they spend time with are their cousins, who are quite rough and don't show the values respect we want to inculcate in our kids. Every time we see them, my kids pick up behaviours we then have to undo. My kids even come and tell me when a cousin did something disrespectful, and then they copy it anyway.

A big reason I homeschool is to give my kids a solid foundation: the confidence to know themselves and do the right thing even when others don't. I'm doing it alone, in a country where homeschooling isn't common or understood, with no community around me. So when something like this happens, I wonder if I'm failing.

I don't want to stop homeschooling, and I don't want to go back to punishment. But I need to start course correcting now, because this can't continue, especially the not stopping.

So I'm asking you:

- How did you teach your little ones to really stop when you say stop, without shouting or punishment?

- How did you handle a big mistake like this, so they learn from it without being crushed by it?

- How do you deal with kids copying behaviour from cousins or other kids you don't agree with?

- What would you do differently in my place?

I'm humble enough to accept I'm missing something. I'm the first one homeschooling in my family and my community. Please share your experiences, advice, anything. I'm listening. 💛”

🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰

We read this and were SHOCKED. Sometimes people need a dose of reality. I commented, “I’m going to be so real, knowingly getting your child a fragile, EXOTIC, animal to learn to be gentle with was a huge mistake.

Just telling him to stop making them fly wasn’t enough. Clearly they were scared and in danger. You didn’t enforce boundaries - which is literally your job as a parent.

Saying you’d take them away if he couldn’t care for them? YOU needed to be the primary caretaker as an adult and not let it get that far.

Sounds like you mostly sat on the sidelines and now everyone in your family is responsible for neglecting, abusing, and killing 2 rabbits.

Doesn’t matter if he meant any harm or not. You’re the adult. You could have stopped this 10x over. You failed your child and the bunnies.”

What would you have said? We’re sick of people treating rabbits as starter pets for their kids.

As of right now, the original post is still up and you can comment on it here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19UdvNwvhc/?mibextid=wwXIfr

And as always, anyone, anywhere can take our FREE virtual education course here: https://forms.gle/rNTYqNijXz9Qc65i8

10/12/2026

Today is supposed to be the last hot day of the year, which means it’s going to quickly get brisk outside.

So we have a new project. And it all started because of a Dolly’s t-shirt.

Recently, we saw a man experiencing homelessness walking near our store and had to do a double take because…sir, is that our merch??

It was. He was wearing a Dolly’s shirt that someone had donated and was clearly getting some good use out of it.

It got us thinking: if one donated shirt found its way to someone who needed it, what else is sitting in our closets that could do the same?

So this fall/winter, we’re collecting winter clothing items at Dolly’s Dream Store for the large group of people experiencing homelessness in our community.

Light jackets. Heavy coats. Gloves. Hats. Scarves. Socks. That perfectly good coat you haven’t worn since 2019 but keep relocating around your closet, because apparently one day you’re going to wake up and become a different person. Bring it.

There’s a local church literally about a 30 second drive from Dolly’s that provides winter clothing directly to people in our homeless community. We’re going to collect everything and take it right over to them.

Because being cold walking from your heated house to your heated car is one thing. Being cold when you don’t have a warm place to go is something entirely different.

We spend every day trying to make sure bunnies are warm, fed, and safe. That compassion doesn’t stop at rabbits.

So this fall, we’ll be asking you to attack your closets.

If it’s clean, wearable, and can keep another human being warm this winter, bring it to Dolly’s.

Maybe someday we’ll spot someone walking down the street in your old coat too.

That seems like a much better place for it than the back of your closet.

Pictured are Sweater Weather and Wooly (plus Annie the dog).

10/12/2026

Help us find Brienne and Sansa’s forever family!

Their foster says, “We're regularly asked how we tell these two pretty ladies apart and the answer is try to pet 'em.

If you go in for a pet and the bun is a maniac, skittering away playfully, that's Sansa.

If you go in and she turns into the most adorable fluff ball, that's Brienne.

Both of these girls have so much personality and it makes it so very easy to differentiate. That said, they do share quite a few hobbies: they're hay machines, regularly getting two to three refills of their hay roller, and a few refills of hay in their litterbox throughout the day. They enjoy regular puzzles (with treat filled rewards!) as entertainment. They're a great team together, sharing well with one another... but let's be honest, they probably need both their brains to come up with a coherent thought.

When they're not munching hay or puzzling the day away, they ADORE spending time with our cats. We have a handful of resident cats, as well as foster cats (and kittens) and they could spend a whole morning running and jumping around with them.

Anyone looking for two fun-loving, adorable buns should look no further!”

Interested in adoption? Click here: https://forms.gle/xatrAFuJh65GYqTG9

10/12/2026

Calling all St. Louis area Girl Scout troops!

Did you know that every single Saturday, we host at least 3 Girl Scout troops at Dolly’s Dream Store? And the best part? It's completely FREE!

We love having these girls visit us! They get to meet some of our rescue bunnies, learn all about proper rabbit care, and see firsthand what goes into running a rabbit rescue.

And no 2 visits are exactly alike! Depending on which bunnies are visiting the store that day, the girls might meet a bunny with special needs or learn about a unique medical case. One recent troop even got to see Cabbage p*e all over our director (sorry girls!).

Of course, there's plenty of time for petting bunnies too.

Education is a HUGE part of what we do at Dolly's. So many rabbits end up in rescues just because people don't understand the care they need. We firmly believe teaching kids about responsible bunny ownership will make a real difference. Plus, the girls can even earn a special Dolly's patch to remember their visit!

We'd love to welcome even MORE troops! If you're a Girl Scout leader, parent, or know someone involved with a troop, please share this with them.

To get your troop scheduled for a FREE visit, email [email protected] and we'll get you all set up!

10/12/2026

Sometimes, rescue looks a little different than you'd expect. And this story is a pretty wonderful example of why we believe so strongly in education.

Back in early July, a local dog rescue reached out to us. Someone had surrendered a mama bunny and her 6 newborn babies. They needed our help.

So, all 7 came to Dolly's!

We named them The Penguins, with each bunny named after a different species of penguin. Very fitting names for a family of rabbits, obviously.

About 10 days later, we got a message from their original owner…and that's when things got interesting.

It turns out she'd kept TWO rabbits. Dad and 1 of the very young babies.

Oh boy.

That baby was WAY too young to be away from its mom and we were terrified it wouldn't survive. We knew the owner loved how cute the baby was, but we needed her to understand that keeping it separated from mom could cost it its life.

So we talked. And talked some more.

We explained everything, answered her questions, and eventually came up with an agreement.

If she surrendered dad and the baby, we'd take all 9 rabbits into our care and make sure everyone received the vet care they needed.

And once dad was fully vetted, she could adopt him back for FREE.

But there was 1 very important condition.

She had to go through our entire adoption process. No shortcuts!

That meant completing our education course, setting up a proper indoor home, and working with us to make sure she understood exactly what a bunny needed. We also talked extensively about why they could never be let outdoors to play again.

And you know what?

SHE DID IT!

It took months, but she followed through.

The tiny baby was reunited with mom, all 9 rabbits received care, and dad buns upper respiratory infection cleared up fully - meaning he could finally be neutered.

And just after neuter, dad (Rockhopper Penguin) got to go home!

We sent him off with some extra supplies and his owner knows she can reach out to us by text or Messenger whenever she needs anything. That support doesn't end just because he's been adopted.

We didn't have to choose between helping the rabbits and helping their owner. We got to do BOTH.

We could've written her off for making mistakes. Instead, we gave her the opportunity to learn and she took it seriously.

That's a pretty big deal.

Because the goal isn't to make people feel terrible for what they didn't know yesterday. It's to make sure they know better today and have the resources to do better tomorrow.

9 rabbits received the care they needed. A newborn was reunited with its mama. And a family learned how to give their bunny a much better life.

Sometimes, education really does change everything.

Welcome home, Rockhopper Penguin, pictured below.

10/11/2026

Did you recently rescue a bunny who refuses to eat hay? Don't panic!

This is actually something we see pretty often, especially with rabbits who have never had access to hay before or were primarily fed pellets.

Sometimes they just don't know what to do with it!

Take Cabbage, for example. It took that little dude almost 4 WEEKS to start eating hay on his own instead of relying on pellets.

Our biggest advice? Keep offering it!

Try different varieties like Timothy, orchard, and botanical hay. Some bunnies have preferences and sometimes it takes a little experimenting to figure out what they'll actually eat.

Of course, we always recommend getting your new bunny examined by a rabbit savvy vet to rule out dental problems or other medical issues. And if your bunny isn't eating at all, or is producing fewer poops, that's an urgent veterinary concern.

But if your new bunny is eating their other food normally and has been medically cleared, don't give up on the hay!

For rabbits who aren't used to it, learning to love hay can take time. Cabbage (not pictured) is living proof that even the most stubborn little pellet enthusiast can eventually figure it out.

Dolly's Dream Home Rabbit Rescue

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