Casey Johnson: What Will Happen to Her Dogs?

Source says late Johnson & Johnson heiress's eldest pooch, Zoe, will not be put down just to be buried with her

There's a good reason Nicky Hilton and Bijou Phillips were looking to collect Casey Johnson's dogs, Zoe and Elvis, from Tila Tequila yesterday.

The pooches meant the world to the late Johnson & Johnson heiress.

And the oldest, Zoe, apparently needs serious medical attention...

She may be blind and have liver problems. "She is something like 20 years old," a family source tells me. "Sadly, she probably should have been put down a while ago. She's suffering."

That's not to say anyone is planning, as Tequila claimed yesterday during the doggy standoff, on putting her to sleep just to be buried with Casey. Zoe will first be examined by an L.A. vet and then by the Johnson family's animal doctor on the East Coast.

Casey already planned for the day Zoe would go to the big doghouse in the sky.

"She got Elvis because Zoe was getting old, and she said it would keep her from killing herself if Zoe died," a friend of Casey says. "She said she'd have another dog so she wouldn't be sad."

Casey had said on numerous occasions that she would keep Zoe's remains in an urn and have the urn buried with her, according to the friend.

"No one is going to ceremoniously kill the dog just so she can be with Casey," the family source insisted. "That is not what Casey would have wanted to happen."