Couple Uses Wedding Fund to Save Abandoned, Injured Dog and Now the Pet Is Walking Again

A young couple drove over 300 miles to take a 10-month-old Goldendoodle puppy to a university animal hospital

An Arkansas couple who used up their wedding fund to help an injured dog has finally taken their new pup home — with some thanks to a group of veterinarians and a massive fundraiser!

Dylan McCay, 22, and his fiancé Emily Roberts, 23, shared their first update about Goldendoodle puppy Acklin (since renamed Maple) on Nov. 2. The update came in a Facebook post in which the couple explained how they responded to a social media post on Halloween about an injured dog on the side of a road that was hit by a car and quickly rushed the canine to a nearby animal hospital.

"Her temperament was wonderful. I had my hazard lights on, got out, and she was trying to scoot over toward me," McCay said the first moment he approached Maple, per a press release from Mississippi State University (MSU). "She put her head on my lap as I'm trying to call emergency hospitals. The whole time, she just wanted to be loved."

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After a vet saw the severity of her injuries — which included two fractured and exposed femurs — the young couple quickly decided to drive over 300 miles to see expert vets at Mississippi State Animal Health Center, located at MSU, and drain their wedding fund to help the ailing pup.

"We were just going to do it," Roberts said of the long and expensive journey. "We tried a few local places, but a lot of places were closed, or they weren't the most competent to do the surgery that needed to be done. We felt like it was something that needed to be done right for her quality of life."

The goldendoodle underwent a challenging 5-hour surgery in which vets Michael Jaffe and Weston Beamon pieced her legs together with five screws, two pins, and one bone plate in each leg. The vets at Mississippi State say the 10-month-old dog is now healthy, happy, and can walk again.

"She was walking on both legs two days after surgery," Jaffe, the chief of small animal surgery at MSU's College of Veterinary Medicine, added. "She's a tough little girl. She's getting stronger now and building that muscle back. She's got a long way to go, but she's going to do it."

According to Roberts, she "broke out in tears" when she discovered that Maple would fully recover.

"It went OK—it went more than OK. Once they told us both legs were fixed, and she would be as good as new, it was amazing. It felt like a miracle," she recalled.

In their first Facebook post, the couple shared that they had taken funds out of their wedding fund and savings accounts to help pay for the dog's surgery and had set up a GoFundMe to help with the remaining costs. The community's support has been outstanding — and the fundraiser has now garnered over $46,000 in donations.

"It's been unbelievable, and we feel really blessed," Roberts said, per the press release. "We're in a constant state of shock and very thankful. It's beautiful to see that people care about our story and love Maple just as much as we do."

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McCay and Roberts have put their wedding plans on hold, they said, but they hope to set a spring 2026 date.

"Emily and I have learned just how silly, playful, and joyous she is," McCay wrote about Maple in an update on GoFundMe. "She is making such great progress with her walking now that we are having to slow her down to prevent her from hurting herself."

"Emily and I are thankful from the bottom of our hearts for the support from each and every one of you," he said in the heartfelt update. You all have helped to change her life."