Bret Michaels, the lead vocalist of POISON, recently welcomed a new four-legged companion into his life. He has adopted a dog named Bret Michaels from the Nebraska Humane Society
This heartwarming adoption story emerged earlier this week when the Nebraska Humane Society posted on their Facebook page. They introduced a six-year-old husky with distinctive heterochromia (one blue eye and one brown eye), who had arrived at the shelter as a stray a couple of weeks ago. Notably, this husky played a crucial role in saving the life of a needy kitten.
“Yesterday our medical staff was working on a trio of month-old kittens who had been brought in as strays,” the Nebraska Humane Society posted on October 17. “They were dirty, cold, and covered in fleas. After a much-needed bath, two of the kits were doing well, but the third seemed a little bit ‘off’. He was wobbly, weak, and lethargic. These symptoms, combined with the state he was in, all pointed to one thing: flea anemia.
“For adult animals, a flea infestation might only affect a small percentage of healthy red blood cells in the body. But for this tiny guy, the impact was far greater. He needed blood — and he needed it now.
“Cats, like humans, have blood types. Us humans are lucky to have a ‘universal donor’ type, O-, that can be safely transfused into a person with any other type. Cats, however, don’t have the luxury of a universal donor type, and transfusing the wrong blood could have dire consequences. Our kitten couldn’t wait for testing to be done to determine a suitable feline donor, but veterinary science has a trick up its sleeve: canine blood can be transfused into felines. It’s called xenotransfusion, and it’s a common practice in cases like this. While it’s not a permanent solution, it gave our kitten what he needed most: time.
“Since Bret had bloodwork done just the other day, our vets knew he was a good candidate to donate. Soon after the first round of transfusion, little man started showing signs of improvement. He had a sleepover with one of our vets and now he’s resting with his siblings.
“A round of ap-paws for Bret Michaels for being such a calm and brave boy, and to our vet team for their quick thinking.”
Soon after, reps for the actual Bret Michaels got in contact with the organization, saying the POISON singer was interested in actually adopting the husky.
“We’ve got an AWESOME update to share with you all about the fabulous Bret Michaels,” the Nebraska Humane Society posted on Friday (October 20). “As you remember, Mr. Michaels here recently helped save the life of a kitten in need. Well, word got around to THE Bret Michaels who loved the story and wanted to chat with us. One phone call later and guess who’s gonna be living the rock star life from here on out? That’s right! Bret Michaels (the man) is adopting Bret Michaels (the dog)! We can’t wait to see how he thrives in his new home, we just hope it doesn’t get too confusing when someone tells Bret Michaels to fetch!”
“Bret Michaels the human has experience with huskies, and he’s a big fan of them,” Nebraska Humane Society digital marketing manager Alec Rose relayed to news station KMTV. “He’s got German shepherds too and they can be pretty similar, so right off the bat he was interested in taking him home.”
In a statement to People, Bret Michaels said: “I could not have been more touched and more honored to adopt Bret Michaels the husky, knowing that he gave blood to save the life of a kitten. I could not work fast enough to adopt this husky and extend the awesome quality of little Bret Jr.‘s life.”
Bret Michaels chose to adopt this heroic dog not long after he experienced the loss of his 14-year-old German shepherd, Phoenix, earlier this year.
“So this story brought a smile back into my family’s life,” Bret told People. “I work diligently with my family and many people to save and improve the lives of many pets. We have always donated to incredible pet drives and charities, and will continue to [home] Bret Jr., who … has now found a loving family that also includes our two rescue shepherds, Nova and Draco.”