When it comes to family feuds, it's a dog-eat-dog world. Just ask Leona Helmsley's survivors.
When the famed "queen of mean" real estate billionaire died in 2007, her largest beneficiary was her female Maltese terrier Trouble, who got $12 million, making the lady canine one rich dog.
It was $12 million more than two of her four grandchildren. They got nothing "for reasons which are known to them," she tartly wrote in her will. Perhaps they didn't visit her during her imprisonment for tax evasion in the 1990s. Two other grandchildren got inheritances, though less than Trouble.
It wasn't the first indication Helmsley family relations were frosty. Years earlier, after her only son died of heart problems, Helmsley evicted his widow.
Needless to say, trouble followed Trouble. A judge negotiated a $6 million settlement with the disowned grandkids. The doggy dowry was cut to $2 million, including $100,000 annually for security, considering Trouble had received death threats.
The rest of her $5 billion to $8 billion went to a trust to provide for the care and welfare of dogs. A judge later ruled the trustees weren't collared by that restriction.