so it doesn't occur to leona to leave her money to charity

[pepperbear]

no, she leaves it to her dog, who doesn't have the intellectual capacity to enjoy it, and apparently she did it to taunt her grandchildren.

Bitch.

[Salviati]

Um....

She DID leave the bulk of her billions to her charitable trust...

[Occulus]

13. ...which most of us rightly do not trust to be at all charitable...

[Salviati]

1. dupe

[TahitiNut]

2. Legally, one cannot bequeath property (e.g. money, assets) to property (i.e. a dog).

She must've set up a foundation for the care and well-being of the dog, but the dog doesn't 'own' anything.

[napi21]

3. She left billions to charity! I thought it was sweet that she set up

some way for the little dog she obviously loved to be pampered for the rest of his life. If I had the $$, I'd do the same thing!

As to her leaving $12 mill. to her dog and $00 to 2 of her grandchildren, she said they'd know why. Sometimes relatives, wether they be your children, grand children, or some other, can do things that really make you angry. It was HER fortune, and she had every right to do with it as she wanted.

[Atman]

4. There is nothing "sweet" about giving $12,000,000 to a fucking DOG

when there are so many people starving, sick, homeless...or still dealing with Katrina, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.

It's fucking sick, and illustrative of everything that is wrong with our fucked-up sense of values in this country.

.

[Orrex]

5. I'm no fan of the Queen of Mean, but...

Her later life took a commendably philanthropic twist. IIRC she gave quite a sum to the Katrina relief effort, too.

Also, she left the huge bulk of her multi-billion dollar estate to charity. Does that count for nothing?

I believe that her brother is in charge of the trust she set up for her dog, by the way, soshe indirectly willed that money to him (or at least to his stewardship).

There are bigger issues to complain about than how a super-rich octogenarian decided to divvy up her money post mortem.

[napi21]

6. I said, she left BILLIONS to charities! It's a shame you have such a

single minded opinion that you begrudge Leona for insuring that her little dog, the one living thing in her life that never judged her, always loved her, and made her happy, live a happy and very comfortable life even after she is gone.

[Atman]

8. Okay, let's keep things in perspective...it's a dog. And it's $12,000,000.

Living comfortably? WTF? Should could have bought the dog a nice little house for $250,000, stocked it full of fine steaks and seafood for the next (XX) years (dog's don't live that long, you know), and still had $11,000,000 left over. I understand that she did other good things with here money once she was overcome by guilt for being a shitheel of human being -- lots of people "come around" on their death beds. But that still doesn't mean there is any good reason to simply flush millions of dollars down the crapper like that. That dog would have been just as happy with a Barbie playhouse, a few rawhide chews and a new diamond collar.

.

[AlCzervik]

16. well hey maybe the dog is leaving all that money to Charity in his will.

[LisaL]

19. Yea, it's a very rich dog. So what?

Why couldn't the dog be rich?

[Atman]

20. Because "rich" is a human conceit

That dog, were it blessed with enough self-awareness to give a shit, would most likely consider itself "rich" if it was simply given a fresh doggie bed and 50 pounds of pig's ears. You're attributing way too much human emotion and awareness to a little dog. That dog wouldn't give a rat's ass if Leona had died a pauper. Just so long a someone brings her a dish of food every day.

IT'S A DOG.

.

[Occulus]

14. You have GOT to be JOKING. n/t

[LisaL]

7. It's her dog and her money.

If she wants to set up a trust for the dog, using her own money, she is entitled.

[Atman]

9. Oh...man...flashbacks to Katrina!

I forgot how many pet nazis there are on DU. Look, I loved my beagle, Olivia. It broke my heart when I had to put her down because she had developed cancer. I cried for days. I'm even a cat guy, too. Currently I'm trying to coax a family of feral kittens to befriend me enough to snatch 'em up and get them to the ASPCA to get fixed. I'm not an insensitive lout, so don't try that bs on me. Of course it was Leona's call to do whatever the hell she wanted with her money. She might as well have shoved it all up her ass before she died, for all the good it's doing in her little doggie house. I'm just saying, it is a very sad reflection on our society that people even support this for a minute when so many people don't even HOMES, let alone $12,000,000 worth of Kibbles & Bits.



There's Spaulding in the foreground. Conchita and Will behind him.

.

[JenniferJuniper]

10. I'm no pet nazi

(my pets consist of one betta fish named Finbar who is flaring at me as I type)

but I thought it was kind of funny. A big fuck you to someone she was displeased with.

Or maybe she just thought of 12 million as a drop in the bucket. She was a crazy old bat after all and everything is relative. I'm actually surprised she left as much as she did to charity.

[susanna]

11. You just gave me a flashback.

I live in an urban area. DH and I were out bike riding when he pointed out something on the side of the alley; a feral kitten. She was beautiful; white and smoke, intermingled. Just lovely.

Long story short, she was blind, sick, dehydrated and evidently abandoned. DH and I gave her food and water over the next day. She didn't touch the food, but drank the water. She was shaking so hard the next day that I thought something was seriously the matter. I called my vet; they said bring her in. I did. She lay in a shoebox on the journey without any signs of "real" life; she just cuddled in the comfort.

The vet came back with the worst: she was in fact blind for life; she had been so severely malnourished and dehydrated that it was unlikely she would recover. She also tested positive (in some murky way) for other problems - "did she scratch you?" (No.) In my own defense, I didn't know dit from diddly about cats (I'm a dog girl). I asked the vet her suggestions...she said, and with an extremely honest face, "this cat was abandoned by its mother...it's sick, it is very possibly diseased in ways we don't know yet. It's blind and it shows no signs of several normal functions. Will you (as the person who brought it in) give us the understanding to euthanize?" I asked the vet one last time: "Is she adoptable, at all, ever?" Her response: "Not without expensive and lengthy treatment, if even then. She is, at this point, terminal." I beat myself up, argued with my husband, and eventually signed the forms - a terrible moment for me. They asked me to name her before euthanization. I did: I told them "Angel."

I cried all the way home that night. Because I brought her to the vet, I'm now her owner forever, and I still get those "postcards" from the vet's office telling me that "Angel" needs feline care. Now, I know (and the vet should) that Angel is no more. I still cry every time I get one.

[Occulus]

15. Hoe do you keep them contained on the street without leashes?

I'm just curious. Do they follow you around?

edit: nevermind. You're trying to GET them to come to you; they're feral. I get it.

[Atman]

17. Drat. No one even picked up on the cool names.

Will Feral. Conchita Feral. And Spaulding Gray.






I'm so freakin' clever sometimes I just don't know what to do with myself...so I post on DU.

:hi:

.

[tabasco]

12. I don't think anyone is disputing that.

Her choice to do so is being condemned and rightly so.

[LisaL]

18. I am certainly not condemning her choice.

She wanted to leave that money to her dog in trust, and so she did.

[lonestarnot]

21. That gasbag of debacledbitchery ... Maybe the doggie will donate to a local homeless shelter or fund