Cage the Elephant Adopts ‘New Member of the Pack’ from New England Puppy Rescue

No rest for new puppy parents: Cage the Elephant frontman Matt Shultz and his wife, Eva.

The rocker, who made stops in New England last month as part of the band’s Neon Pill tour with Young the Giant and Bakar, adopted an 8-week-old Catahoula leopard mix from New England Puppy Rescue, a foster-based organization in Connecticut.

“Found a new band member along the way 🐶🌈 Special thanks to @newenglandpuppyrescue for giving us some puppy love before the show and helping Bowie find his forever home with @matthewrayshultz!” Cage the Elephant shared on Instagram.

The Connecticut organization formed a fundraising partnership with Live Nation this summer and has hosted “backstage puppy repair” events for bands including Cage the Elephant and Blink-182, New England Puppy Rescue founder Marissa Squires told Boston.com by phone.

The puppies at these events are socialized and healthy with the help of volunteers, Squires said. This particular litter was found abandoned at 3 weeks old in Mississippi and brought to the New England organization a few weeks later. When Cage the Elephant met the puppies backstage at the band’s Aug. 19 show at the Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater in Bridgeport, the litter was 8 weeks old and “super social” since being at the shelter.

“We give the band and crew a chance to relax. Touring is obviously very stressful and many of them miss their dogs who stay at home and can’t accompany them on tour,” Squires explains.

“I mean, who doesn’t love puppies, right? Everyone’s all smiles.”

Group members usually don’t end up bringing the puppies home.

“Normally, puppies are not adoptable at this event,” Squires said, noting that the goal is more to spread the word about the rescue’s mission, while also bringing joy to the group and team.

Shulz recently broke his foot, so the lead singer had to ride a scooter on stage for his last few shows. Because of his injury, the shelter offered to bring the puppies to Shulz, rather than letting him sit in the pen with the puppies climbing all over him.

The dog Shulz grew to love had “a very beautiful spotted merle coat and she has half a blue eye,” so he aptly named her “Bowie” in honor of David Bowie, Squires said.

After spending some time with her, Shulz had to get ready for the show, so he asked if he could bring the puppy with him to his dressing room to spend some more time with him. About 45 minutes later, the singer came back to the volunteers and said he wanted to adopt the dog.

Celebrity or not, Shulz couldn’t just bring Bowie home without any oversight. The shelter works hard to ensure adopters don’t act impulsively and that the puppies find forever homes.

After speaking with the squires and rescue staff, Shulz took the pup back to his locker room once more, met with his wife to discuss the process in more detail, filled out the form and came back with a detailed plan.

Shulz and his wife reportedly explained how they researched the puppy’s breed and discussed a plan to welcome the dog into their home, which already includes two other dogs, ages 13 and 1.

The rocker explained that the older dog didn’t want to play with the younger one, so they hoped a puppy could satisfy the one-year-old’s need for a playmate.

As if that information wasn’t enough, it was the following statement that really convinced Squires to justify the Shulz family being labeled as adopters.

Shulz explained that the band had worked with a number of pet rescue organizations over the course of the tour and had met approximately 100 puppies at the 15 previous tour locations. The singer had never tried to adopt one of these puppies before, but it was clear to him that “Bowie” was different. It was this particular statement that confirmed to Squires that there was a connection.

“It was a perfect match and it all happened by chance,” the rescue founder said.

Find out more about the event behind the scenes below:

Boston.com Today

Sign up to get the latest headlines delivered to your inbox every morning.