Actor Ian Somerhalder has a new best friend after adopting a rescue dog.

The Hollywood hunk took to his Twitter.com page on Monday (19Aug) to share an adorable photo of himself hugging his new pet, who was rescued near the lot where he shoots his hit Tv show, Vampire Diaries.

He tweeted, "My new girl. Rescued from traffic near the Vampire Diaries stages just a few hours ago - so smart, so beautiful & charming - all a man could ask for in a girl. So happy together. Her name is Nietzsche."

In April (13), the animal loving actor revealed that he is working on plans to launch his own centre for abused animals.

He explained, "We're building an animal sanctuary that's also going to double as a sustainable agriculture farm and triple as a youth education camp. When a young person comes to that farm, they leave with a different understanding of compassion. If you have compassion for an animal, ultimately you will have compassion for people."