Leona Helmsley's notoriously spoiled dog, Trouble, had a good life... a very good life. When the "Queen of Mean" died in 2007, she bequeathed her beloved Maltese a whopping $12 million. After a number of health issues left Trouble blind and sick, the aging pooch passed away last December, a fact Helmsley spokespeople have just made public. Here, a brief guide, by the numbers, to the life and death of the $12 million dog:
12
Trouble's age in human years when the "pampered pooch" died. "Trouble was cremated, and her remains are being privately retained," a spokeswoman said.
84
The equivalent age in dog years
$2.5 billion
Helmsley's estimated worth when she died in 2007, making her the 369th richest person on Earth according to a Forbes ranking. While leaving Trouble $12 million, Helmsley cut two grandchildren out of her will entirely, and left much of the remainder of her estate to a canine charity, as further proof of her devotion to Trouble and his kind.
18
Number of months Helmsley spent in federal prison after being convicted in 1989 of evading $1.2 million in taxes. A former housekeeper testified that she'd once heard her boss say, "We don't pay taxes, only the little people pay taxes."
$2 million
Amount to which Trouble's $12 million inheritance was later reduced by a judge
$100,000
Amount on which Trouble could manage each year, according to the dog's caretaker, Carl Lekic
$8,000
Share of that sum allocated for Trouble's grooming
$1,200
Share for food
$90,800
Share for Lekic's fee and a full-time security guard
20 to 30
Number of death and kidnapping threats reportedly received by Trouble, necessitating the aforementioned security guard
18,000
Square footage of the family mausoleum in New York's Westchester County, where Helmsley wanted Trouble interred with her. Sadly, it couldn't be. "You cannot bury pets in a cemetery," says a cemetery board member. "The same rules apply to mausoleums."
$3 million
Amount that Florida socialite Gail Posner left her dogs, a Chihuahua named Conchita among them, when she died in 2010. "She's the Leona Helmsley of the Sunshine State," said Tim Peron in the New York Post.
$30 million
Amount Oprah is reportedly planning on bequeathing to her dogs
Sources: NY Daily News, AP, New York Post, Celeb Bitchy, Salon
