When their 15-year-old Chihuahua mix Elvis fell ill, Heather and her fiancé knew exactly what to do. Instead of planning their wedding, Heather and her partner redirected the money to save their dog’s life.
As Elvis began suffering seizures Heather, 29, from Maine rushed him to the vet.
“We’ve had multiple ER visits and appointments with his normal doctor to try and figure out why he’s passing out/having seizures. This weekend, he stayed at the emergency vet, and then we brought him back the night we got him back because he had two seizures again,” Heather told Newsweek.
Elvis, who also has early-stage kidney disease, suffered three episodes in a single night, prompting Heather to rush him to the ER again. Despite extensive testing—including X-rays, EKGs, ultrasounds, and a heart monitor—the cause remains unclear.
@littlepawsbnb.maine//Instagram
“They kept going back from neurology to cardiology to try and figure out which one is the issue. We still don’t exactly know what the main issue is, it could just be a factor of everything being a little off,” Heather said. But thankfully, after a few days care from veterinarians, Elvis was ready to come home.
“We picked him up last night and let me say the king is back,” Heather said, delighted. “We’re still going to take it easy, but I could not be happier at this moment.”
The couple had planned a low-key elopement this summer, with Elvis front and center.
“I haven’t nailed down the wedding plan yet. I know Elvis is older, and I want him to be a part of it. We have a photoshoot scheduled in August with him. We had planned to elope at the end of this summer and have a low-key, backyard event with immediate family, so that way Elvis could be a guaranteed part of it,” Heather said.
But after Elvis’ medical emergency, their plans are on hold. “I’ll go into debt over my dog but not over a wedding. I think the plan now is just to figure out something small with Elvis there and plan a bigger celebration at some point later,” she said, although the couple did not share the full cost of the vet bill.
According to a poll by Talker Research for the insurance company MetLife, the average pet owner spent $2,085.60 on their animals in 2024.
Despite pet owners increasingly seeing their pets as part of the family, a survey by PetSmart Charities found that 52 percent of owners have skipped or declined medical care for their pet. Of those, 71 percent cite cost as the key factor, whether because they could not afford it, they did not think it was worth the cost, or both.
Amber Batteiger, from Embrace Pet Insurance previously told Newsweek: “Our average individual claim cost in 2024 was $445, but pet emergencies can cost tens of thousands of dollars.” Because of this, she recommended pet owners have an emergency fund for pet medical issues, aiming for around $2,000 per pet.
The couple shared how they spent their wedding fund on saving their pet, with the video on Instagram gaining more than 40,000 views since being posted earlier this week.
“Would give everything I have for this little boy,” the caption says, while the on-screen text reads: “When you spend your whole wedding budget saving your 15 year old dog.”
“Elvis deserves the whole world,” said one commenter. While another wrote: “They are worth every single penny.”
“I’ve always said Elvis comes first; he lives a better life than me because I owe him my life. I got him in high school, my sister, who passed away actually picked him out… I was the first person he let hold, and it was soulmates from there,” Heather said. “I’m not kidding when I say I love him more than anything in the world (maybe fiancé excluded).”