RESCUED !
More than 3 million shelter animals are adopted each year. Some of them are finding forever homes with celebrities, who spread the word about adopting. Here are some of their happy tales, starting with country superstar Miranda Lambert’s.
Almost all of Miranda Lambert’s friends have gotten the phone call—her bit of persuasion about taking in a rescue dog, or two or three. “They all know it’s coming!” she says with a laugh. “I encourage people to adopt instead of shop [at pet stores]. So many homeless dogs get overlooked because of breeders,” she says. “I’m a great matchmaker, I have to say. I tell them, ‘There’s always room for one more.’”
The two-time Grammy winner and multiplatinumselling country music superstar is definitely not all bark and no bite. In less than a decade, her MuttNation Foundation (founded in 2009 with her mom, Bev) has allocated nearly $1 million to more than 200 rescue shelters around the country. She also runs a “Little Red Wagon” program, inviting concert ticket holders to drop off dog food, treats, toys and supplies at each tour stop.
Last fall, Lambert, 34, personally worked in Houston to transport dozens of pets from rescue shelters that were ravaged by Hurricane Harvey. And the singer of the hits “Tin Man,” “Automatic,” “Vice” and “Mama’s Broken Heart” has helped raise $3.5 million and counting, all in the name of pet rescue.
Her devotion to animals dates back to her childhood in Longview, Texas, where she often watched her mom and dad, Rick, take in displaced dogs. “We constantly had someone dropping off a mutt, or my mom would come home with some random dog she found on the road,” she recalls.
Lambert—a seven-time CMA Female Vocalist of the Year and its reigning trophy holder—currently has eight dogs roaming around her 400acre farm in Williamsport, Tenn. Each has a Cinderella story. Delta, a Chihuahua-pug, was found wandering around a Sonic drive-in, while Cher, a Chihuahua, was discovered in a dumpster.
Lambert has adopted two sets of siblings: Jessi and Waylon are golden retrievers who were stranded in a box on the side of the road; and Thelma and Louise, Great Pyrenees, were found together on a farm. Her newest addition to the family, JD, also a Pyrenees, was picked up roaming the roads. “Rescue dogs are special,” she says. “They know you’ve saved their lives.”
Lambert, who divorced fellow country star Blake Shelton in 2015, refers to her dogs as her children and says she loves them all equally—but her youngest, Bellamy, a mini golden retriever mix whom she adopted from a Florida shelter, “has baby-boy syndrome and is pretty rotten!” The three big ones stay on her property, while the five smaller pets “are pretty much with me all the time.” They go on the tour bus with her, and she always keeps three double leashes handy; her fans have even spotted her taking her dogs for a stroll. “Just the other day, my dog wrapped around a girl’s legs and she was like, ‘Are you Miranda Lambert?’ ”
Once Lambert gets off the road, she says she always looks forward to “getting my hands dirty” with her charity and shelter work.
“Music and mutts are my two passions,” she says. “So using music to raise money for these animals is pretty amazing.”
GEORGE CLOONEY
Back in 2010, Clooney, 57, saw a cocker spaniel named Einstein online. Before their first meeting, the superstar actor started “to panic that Einstein is not going to like me,” he says. “So I run into the kitchen, where I have these turkey meatballs, and I rub them all over my shoes!” Though Einstein died in 2017, Clooney and his wife, Amal, now have two other rescues: Louie, a spaniel from Camp Cocker Rescue, and Millie, a basset hound from the San Gabriel Valley (Calif.) Humane Society.
SELMA BLAIR
Blair, from TV’s American Crime Story, 46, has two 1-year-old rescues: Cappy, a pit bull mix from Angel City Pit Bulls in L.A., and Buster, a mutt from an L.A. outpost of the Utah-based Best Friends Animal Society. “I used to have a one-eyed Chihuahua-corgi, Wink. I have a little shrine to him in my house and asked him, ‘Please send me a dog like you.’ The next day, I saw an Instagram photo about a one-eyed dog that needed rescuing. Now Buster is my little smoosh ball. There’s so much tragedy in the world. But rescue dogs bring so much love and heal so many people.”
LIAM HEMSWORTH
It was pop star Miley Cyrus who encouraged her boyfriend, The Hunger Games star Hemsworth, 28, to get his dog from Wylder’s Holistic Pet Center in L.A. in 2015. Enter Dora the Explorer, “a gigantic rescue pup.” The Irish wolfhound mix and her rescue sister, Tani, have since become beloved Instagram stars.
HILARY DUFF
“Lucy has an amazing downward dog pose that she holds for 30 to 60 seconds at a time every morning. I try not to miss it!” says singer and Younger star Duff, 30, of the senior shepherd mix she adopted from Love Leo Rescue in L.A.“We don’t know her history, but she’s a shy dog with some anxiety issues. There are so many dogs that need stable, loving homes that there’s really no reason to shop [at a pet store]. There’s something about a rescue that makes you feel great.”
ANDY COHEN
Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live host, 50, could talk for hours about his loyal companion Wacha, a beagle-foxhound mix he found on national pet adoption website Petfinder in 2013. FYI, he’s named after pitcher Michael Wacha from Cohen’s hometown St. Louis Cardinals.
Love Connection “Petfinder is like a dating app for pets. You click from dog to dog and can sort everything from weight to breed. I saw this photo of a dog looking up with these big eyes. And I’ve always loved Snoopy. He was just perfect.”
Sweet Flirt “He’s like Hugh Grant. He’s really sweet and a little bit of a flirt, so that’s how he seduces you. But then he’ll be evasive and indifferent.”
Beach Baby “Wacha was found in West Virginia and he was going to be killed. Now he’s taking helicopter rides to the Hamptons. Any time we can spend together at the beach is great.”
Why I Rescue “It’s a no-brainer. These dogs need homes. Sometimes it’s a do-ordie proposition. There was no question that out of the zillions of dogs out there, I’d find one that I loved. The idea of buying dogs is nuts to me.”
‘Animals are miracle workers. They come into our lives for a purpose.’
—Dancing With the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba, 50, has three rescue cats and three rescue dogs— including Peanut, a small “guard dog” that literally fell into her lap while she did a foster dog segment for Access Hollywood in 2015.
‘Big Girl lays on her back most of the time to be able to look up at us. This makes her look like an area rug. Her cuteness causes kitchen traffic to come to a full stop.’
—Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Jason Mraz of “The Remedy (I Won’t Worry)” and “I’m Yours” fame, 40, adopted Big Girl, who he says is “perhaps a Maine coon.”
‘Being an adopted person myself, I feel a kinship toward children and animals that need a home. There are so many dogs in need.’
—Tony- and Emmy-winning actress Kristin Chenoweth, 49, with Thunder
RYAN REYNOLDS
Reynolds visited a Houston animal shelter in 2009, intending to get a dog for a friend. “I saw this big, dumb-looking retriever staring up at me,” recalls the Deadpool 2 star, 41. “I whispered to him, ‘Hey, let’s get the hell out of here.’ And he jumped up, like he spoke English fluently.” Reynolds, married to actress Blake Lively, and Baxter have been “best buddies ever since.”
ARIANA GRANDE
The pop singer, 25, who has eight rescue dogs, works with the Humane Society and national petsupply subscription service BarkBox, which partners with shelters. “My mission is to help as many homeless dogs as I can find loving families who will cherish them,” she says. “Dogs are the most harmless, sweetest babes in the world. They show nothing but unconditional love, so they deserve that in return.”
Visit Parade.com/rescue to see how Bradley Cooper, Zooey Deschanel, Hilary Swank, Rob Thomas and other stars are helping pets.
‘It’s all about saving lives. Each life matters. When you rescue an animal from a shelter, you are saving two lives—the one that you are adopting and the next one who needs that space.’
—Beth Stern, national spokeswoman for the North Shore Animal League in New York, the world’s largest no-kill rescue organization. The former model, 46, and her husband, SiriusXM host Howard Stern, have fostered more than 600 pets.