Horses Once Destined for Slaughterhouse are Headed to Graceland

PALERMO, Maine – Two horses once destined for the slaughterhouse have a new home at Graceland, where they're being adopted by Priscilla Presley.

Carol-Terese Naser rescued six horses including Max and his brother, Merlin, last summer from a family in Quebec. But she was shocked by the expense of keeping them, so she and her friend, Cathy Cleaveland, enlisted some celebrity help.

They sent T-shirts to celebrities to be signed and returned for auction to defray costs of keeping the horses. They received responses from country crooner Alan Jackson and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" host Ty Pennington, among others.

During the process, Max and Merlin were lucky enough to catch the attention of Priscilla Presley, former wife of the late Elvis Presley.

"I answered the phone and Priscilla Presley was on the other end," Cleaveland recalled with a laugh. "I didn't believe it at first."

Presley told the women she wanted to give Max and Merlin a home at Graceland, the nearly 14-acre spread, 23-room mansion in Memphis that Elvis shared with Priscilla and their daughter until the couple's divorce in the early 1970s.

"I have always had a bond with horses," Presley told the Kennebec Journal. "Elvis gave me my very first horse. It was the horses that made Graceland home to us."

Max is already enjoying his new digs, having arrived Jan. 10 at Graceland. Merlin is expected to arrive at Graceland this spring.