“Pets have more love and compassion in them than most humans.” – Robert Wagner

Shelter animals often have a rough start in life. They are often stuck in cages, waiting for someone to rescue them.

But one special husky with a rock-star name got a chance to be a hero, and in the process find himself a home.

The Nebraska Humane Society found itself making headlines when they posted about their special husky dog named Bret Michaels, after the lead singer of the rock band Poison.

Bret Michaels, the dog, did something that doesn’t happen often – he saved the life of a cat.

“It’s not very often that our own dogs get a chance to be the hero!” Nebraska Humane Society staff wrote on Facebook.

When a kitten’s life was hanging in the balance, 6 year old husky Bret Michaels stepped up to save the day.”

The shelter explained that they had three stray kittens, barely a month old, with one in very bad shape.

“He was wobbly, weak, and lethargic,” the shelter explained. “These symptoms, combined with the state he was in, all pointed to one thing: flea anemia.”

Bret Michaels, who was found on the streets of Omaha and taken to the Nebraska Humane Society in late September, in a Halloween photo shoot set up by the shelter. Photo by Kimbers Pawprints Photography

The kitten, who was given the moniker of Thorn, after Poison’s 1980 hit song, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”, was dying after severe blood loss caused him to develop anemia. He needed a blood transfusion.

“Feline blood is very particular, as far as typing goes, and we didn’t have time to figure out what type the little guy was and find a suitable donor,” said Alec Rose, digital marketing manager for the shelter. “That process would have taken longer than he actually had.”

So the shelter’s vet decided on xenotransfusion – using blood from a different species. Enter Bret Michaels. 

“It was a really neat process,” Rose said. The shelter noted that Thorn would not have lasted the night if it wasn’t for the dog. “It ended up working out really well. After 15 minutes, he was doing great, his heart rate had slowed down, he wasn’t shivering nearly as much.”

The process is usually just used as a stop-gap measure.

“The canine transfusion helps hold them over until there is a suitable feline donor, but it wasn’t necessary in this case,” Rose said.

The post went viral, quickly being shared across the internet. And that’s when singer Bret Michaels saw the video. Michaels had been touring, performing Poison hits as well as solo music. 

The shelter got a message, two days after the post, from Bret Michaels’ official account, as well as a comment on the original post.

Bret Michaels of the rock band Poison performs in Columbia, Md. AP Photo

“Hi — Team Bret reaching out to you about this. What an absolutely amazing story!” the comment said. “We wrote you a private message as well — Bret would like to explore adopting Bret Michaels (the dog).”

Shelter staff were stunned.

“At first, I thought it was a fake account,” said Rose, who later spoke with one of Michaels’s team members. “He was interested in taking him home.”

Michaels called and spoke with Rose, and learned that the dog had been a stray found on the streets of Omaha.

He’s a really sweet dog,” Rose told the rock star.

In an odd twist, the person who had found Bret Michaels, the dog, wandering the streets, had been the one to name him.

“That’s the craziest part of the story,” Rose said.

So when the real Bret Michaels contacted them, everyone was stunned.

But they knew it was “definitely meant to be,” Rose said, adding that the singer told him that one of his three German shepherds died a few weeks ago. “So many things aligned for this to happen.”

Bret Michaels said as soon as he heard about the dog, he knew he had to help.

“The story of Bret Michaels, the husky, saving Thorn the kitten’s life with the blood transfusion was beyond incredible,” Michaels said in a statement. “I was immediately moved and personally contacted the Nebraska Humane Society to say ‘Go no further, I will adopt Bret Michaels, the husky.’”

What a happy ending for this superhero dog. Watch the story below!

Sources: Washington Post | CBS News