Leona Helmsley's Dog Trouble: Inside Her Expensive Life

Trouble may have been one of the world's only millionaire dogs ? and she certainly lived like one.

The 12-year-old Maltese, who died in December, was the notorious recipient of a $12 million trust fund when her owner, billionaire Leona Helmsley, died in 2007. Those riches (which were later reduced by $10 million) helped fund a fittingly lavish existence.

According to the New York Times, Trouble had yearly expenses totaling $190,000, $100,000 of which was used for a security team that protected her from threats to kill or kidnap her.

When Helmsley was still alive, she would not allow Trouble to be called "the dog," but demanded she be called "Princess" instead. Accordingly, the pooch was "hand-fed crab cakes, cream cheese and steamed vegetables with chicken."

After Helmsley's death, Trouble was cared for by Carl Lekic, the general manager of the Helmsley Sandcastle Hotel in Florida, and he made a striking change to her diet. For the last three years of her life, instead of crab cakes, Trouble ate canned dog food.

'); var targetVideoWidth = 466; brightcove.createExperiences(); /* iPhone, iPad, iPod */ if ((navigator.userAgent.match('iPhone')) || (navigator.userAgent.match('iPad')) || (navigator.userAgent.match('iPod')) || (location.search.indexOf('ipad=true') > -1)) { document.write('

Source: http://feeds.people.com/~r/people/headlines/~3/smnYtgZR2H0/0,,20501670,00.html

Michelle Branch Sarah Silverman Paris Hilton America Ferrera Noureen DeWulf