As per a Nebraska Humane Society Facebook, Poison frontman Bret Michaels has adopted one of their dogs, named Bret Michaels
The post stated that the six-year-old husky, who has one blue eye and one brown eye and came in as a stray a couple weeks ago, helped save the life of a kitten in need.
“Yesterday our medical staff was working on a trio of month-old kittens who had been brought in as strays,” the Nebraska Humane Society wrote onOctober 17th. “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.”
A couple of days later, representatives of the real Bret Michaels reached out to organization, saying he learned of the husky’s “amazing story” and wanted to adopt him.
“We’ve got an AWESOME update to share with you all about the fabulous Bret Michaels,” the Nebraska Humane Society wrote in a post on October 20th. “As you remember, Mr. Michaels here recently helped save the life of a kitten in need. Well, word got around to THE [real] 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,” Alec Rose, digital marketing manager at Nebraska Humane Society told 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, 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.”
Michaels’ decision to adopt the hero dog came shortly after he lost 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.”
Back in 2011, the singer launched a pet products line that retailed at PetSmart, called Pets Rock.
Bret Michaels (the dog) photo courtesy of the Nebraska Humane Society.
additional source: blabbermouth.net
One Response
Michaels is wonderful person, and does a lot for Vets, too.