The Cullen family may have compatibility issues with the werewolves of Forks, but Eclipse star Nikki Reed is head over heels for one particular canine: her new rescue dog.

"Sydney’s awesome!" Reed, 22, gushed to PEOPLE about her pit bull pal, whom she saved from certain death while volunteering at an animal shelter. "Rescues are the best!"

"I work at a lot of different shelters and I walk dogs and do a lot of different stuff with them because I love animals, and they were in the process of taking Sydney – literally, because I was there – to be euthanized," Reed revealed at the premiere of the Twilight Saga's third installment last week. "In fact, they already had her in the computers as already being deceased, and so I took her home with me.”

The 2-year-old pit bull has been a work in progress ever since she came into the actress's life. "She's so friendly and so loving," said Reed, even though Sydney initially came with some emotional and physical baggage from her previous life. "She was so funky-looking when I got her. She had bald spots and nipples to the floor because she had a litter of puppies under a bridge, apparently. She hates other dogs, but she's so cool."

Sydney is the only pooch Reed owns right now, but she helps rescue other pets as often as she can. "I adopt a lot of animals and then I give them to my mom or my dad or a relative – I find homes for them," she says. "I brought one dog back from Europe that I found on the street."