Vote For Hope For Paws And Win Harlette Style

As any Bette Midler fan knows, one of the most fascinating aspects of the Divine Miss M is the company she keeps, and in the case of her Staggering Harlettes, she is in fantastic company indeed.

Although the roster changes from tour to tour, the Harlettes are a multi-talented trio of singers, dancers, often fish-tail clad wheelchair drivers, comediennes, ukulele players, and poi ball twirlers, and that is only the tip of their talented iceberg.

One of the most amazing of these gorgeous Glamazons is the beautiful, talented, and downright wacky Rhae Ann Theriault, who I've been fortunate to be friends with for a while now. She is also one of the most compassionate people on the planet, and through her most recent endeavour, she has allied herself with other compassionate people to ensure positive outcomes for the less fortunate, especially her animal friends.

Together with Don Bradshaw, webmaster of the premiere Bette Midler web-blog Bootleg Betty, Theriault has sponsored a very huge online benefit to save unwanted, neglected, or abused animals worldwide. This is a global effort in honour of one of her dear friends Eldad Hagar, whose organisation Hope For Paws could be the recipient of a $1, 000, 000 grant, courtesy of Chase Community Giving, to benefit these animals.

On the Hope For Paws website, the issue is very clear as to why this is such an important mission for pets and people alike.

"Five million pets are euthanized every year. When we created the book, Our Lives Have Gone To The Dogs, about our experience rescuing and fostering dogs and other creatures; we did not foresee that it would make a profound impact on human beings. The book has reached beyond what we could have imagined with its photos and stories are of animals who overcame abuse, neglect, and abandonment to become loving pets, companions, and even therapy dogs. With its emphasis on adopting and treating our pets as family members versus objects, the book has both educated and touched people regardless of race, religion, and political beliefs all over America and in other countries. Individuals in hospitals, cancer patients, and seniors in assisted living have told us that these stories inspired them and gave them hope. The book has the ability to ease the pain and suffering of both humans and animals alike. The written word has the power to educate, enlighten, inspire, and change lives for the better."

By voting (all it takes is a free mouse click) at the following website you can help, and there is an added incentive, as Theriault will explain herself. By the way, the beautiful cat in the photo is named Lucy, she is the pet of Hali Burton, a friend of Theriault who nursed her back to health.

"Hello Everybody,

An animal rescue organization that is very close to my heart, Hope for Paws, was voted among the TOP 100 charity organizations in the U.S. in the Chase Community Giving competition last month, and they won a $25,000 donation for the animals.

They are NOW in round two where they can win a ONE MILLION DOLLAR donation (the winner is based purely on number of votes we get online)! If you have a minute, please see some video of this dog they rescued this week (just to give you an idea of what they do):
Chase's Rescue Story


Here’s a video filmed YESTERDAY while rescuing an injured dog with a broken pelvis:


Rescuing Karma


I hope these videos convince you that they do awesome work for the animals and are worthy of your vote. They’re the ONLY pet rescue group in this contest!!


Rhae Ann Theriault (Former Harlette)"

As an added incentive, Theriault is offering her own original Divine Miss Millennium tour jacket as a prize for the person who can rally the most votes for the cause.

"If you get as many of your friends, family & co-workers to VOTE for "Hope For Paws" - you'll be entered to win an official Bette Midler tour jacket that I wore in the Divine Miss Millennium Tour!

Let's see... in order to be eligible to WIN you must try to get all your Facebook, MySpace, family, friends, & co-workers to vote. It only takes a mouse click and we need thousands of votes. One of the leading charities is in Turkey, I think. They must have people networking like crazy. We need to reach large masses of people - like at schools, universities, celebrity followers, and I'm not TWITTER-savvy!"

Don Bradshaw adds the following:

"After you’ve voted and rallied all your friends, family, co-workers, etc. to do so – and would like to ENTER TO WIN the Bette tour jacket: CLICK ON THIS LINK: Enter To Win and put
Hope For Paws Contest BootlegBetty.com in the subject line of the email. It will send me (Mister D) an email. *Simply enter your name, address, and zip code for the drawing!
Contest ends Friday, January 22 at midnight.
We can DO this! Please, Please Vote!!!!"