VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The Overdose Prevention Society (OPS) is praising its volunteers who helped save the life of a rather furry patient over the weekend.

On Saturday, someone brought in a rat, saying the small black and white rodent had eaten some heroin and was suffering from an overdose.

Sarah Blyth with OPS says the creature was barely moving when volunteers jumped into action and administered a rat-sized dose of Narcan, an oral form of naloxone, to reverse the effects.

“The rat came back to life, and survived,” she says.

The rat, dubbed Snuggles, was later adopted by one of the volunteers who helped save her life.

“It just shows how big the issue is and how kind and people can be sometimes,” Blyth says.

This is what snuggles looked like when she came in to our overdose Prevention Site #vanpoli pic.twitter.com/9Osv4HSSjO — sarah blyth (@sarahblyth) May 15, 2017

The OPS tent sees up to 600 people a day, according to Blyth, and she hopes this case brings attention to the ongoing overdose issue in the community.

“It’s hard for me to know what will get people’s attention at the top, and if it happens to be a fuzzy little critter in a vulnerable situation, we’re happy with that,” she says.

The pet overdose is not the first in the province. In December a six-month-old pug cross puppy in Saanich ate something off the ground and is believed to have suffered an opioid overdose.

More than 350 people have died of overdoses in BC this year, putting the province on track to break last year’s record of 922.