When Baldwin resident Nancy Pine took her 14-year-old poodle to a dog groomer last week, she expected her darling Rajah returned with his fur shampooed and trimmed.
Instead, Rajah returned home “barely alive,” Pine said.
Pine rushed the dog to a local animal hospital, where the dog was diagnosed as suffering from dehydration and shock, she said.
Rajah was pronounced dead at 4 a.m. Saturday morning.
“I cried all day Saturday,” Pine said. “It was so horrible. If you have a dog, and they have a chronic illness, you can understand when they die. But to have the dog come back from the groomer in shock and die at 4 in the morning, it?s unbelievable.”
Pine said she isn?t sure what exactly happened that caused her dog to die, but she knows Rajah was in fine shape before she left him in the care of Grooming by Celeste at 5235 Hydes Road in Baltimore County at noon on Friday.
The amount of time the groomers kept the dog raised Pine?s suspicious. Usually, such grooming takes about two hours, but this session lasted seven.
A strange phone call from the business also disturbed Pine, she said.
“They called and said, ?He bite me. He?s not behaving very well and there?s no excuse for that,? ” Pine said. “What in the heck was being done to my dog? If they knew the dog was in distress, they should have called me. If they thought the dog was sick, they should have called me.”
Pine said the business? owner, Celeste Rainone, told her after returning Rajah that the dog was ill when Pine brought him to her, but Pine doesn?t buy that.
“It?s suspicious. I think she mighthave been struggling with the dog,” she said. “We?re just devastated. This should not have happened to any animal.”
Pine plans to seek a necropsy today to determine the cause of death.
No one from the business, including Rainone, returned a reporter?s phone calls.
Baltimore County police spokesman Cpl. Mike Hill said police believe the dog?s death is a civil matter, unless the necropsy indicates signs of abuse.
