Cage the Elephant adopts ‘new band member’ from New England Puppy Rescue

Ain't no rest for the new puppy parents: Cage the Elephant frontman Matt Shultz and his wife, Eva.

Ain’t no rest for the new puppy parents: Cage the Elephant frontman Matt Shultz and his wife, Eva.

The rocker, who made a few 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 the @newenglandpuppyrescue for giving us some pre-show puppy love and for helping Bowie find her forever home with @matthewrayshultz!” Cage the Elephant shared on Instagram.

The Connecticut organization formed a fundraising partnership with Live Nation this summer and set up “backstage puppy fix” events for bands such as 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 explained. This particular litter was found abandoned at 3 weeks old in Mississippi and brought to the New England organization a couple weeks later. When Cage the Elephant met the puppies backstage at the band’s Aug. 19 show at Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater in Bridgeport, the litter was 8 weeks old and “super social” from its time with the rescue.

“We offer the band and the crew, basically, just an option to decompress. Tour is obviously super stressful and a lot of them are missing their dogs at home that can’t come on the tour with them,” Squires explained.

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

Band members do not usually end up taking any of the puppies home though.

“On a normal basis, the puppies are not adoptable at this event,” Squires said, noting that the focus is more about spreading the rescue’s mission, while also bringing joy to the band and crew.

Shulz recently broke his foot, so the lead singer has been rocking a scooter on stage at recent shows. Due to the injury, the rescue offered to bring the puppies to Shulz, rather than have him sit in the pen with them climbing all over him.

The dog that Shulz came to love had a “really beautiful, speckly merle coat and she has half of a blue eye,” so he aptly named her “Bowie” after David Bowie, Squires said.

After hanging with her for awhile, Shulz had to get ready for the show, so he asked if he could bring the pup with him to his dressing room to hang out for a bit longer. Roughly 45 minutes later, the singer returned to the volunteers and said he had an interest in adopting the dog.

Celebrity or not, Shulz couldn’t just bring Bowie home without any vetting though. The rescue works hard to ensure adopters are not acting impulsively and that puppies find their forever homes.

After speaking with Squires and rescue staff, Shulz took the puppy back to his dressing room once more, met with his wife to discuss the process further, filled out the application, and returned with a detailed plan.

Shulz and his wife reportedly explained how they had 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 doesn’t want to play with the younger dog, so they had hoped a puppy could satisfy the 1-year-old’s need for a playmate.

If that information was not enough, it was the next statement that really sold it to Squires on why the Shulz family would be qualified adopters.

Shulz explained that the band had engaged with a number of pet rescues along the tour and met roughly 100 puppies at the previous 15 or so venues. The singer had never previously tried to adopt any of these puppies, but it was clear to him that “Bowie” was different. It was that particular statement that confirmed to Squires that there was a connection.

“It was a match made in heaven, and it was all very serendipitous,” the rescue founder said.

See more from the backstage event below: