These days, along with gasoline prices, war and the economy, everything seems to be going to the dogs. While that's usually just an expression of bad times, it is the absolute truth in the case of the last wishes of the late super-rich real estate and hotel owner, Lena Mindy Rosenthal Roberts Panzirer Lubin Helmsley, AKA Leona Helmsley, AKA the Queen of Mean.

When she died a year ago, her preliminary will left several million dollars to her little Maltese dog, Trouble. However, now that her entire estate has been probated, it is revealed that she actually wanted to leave from five to eight billion ... that's billion with a b ... to Trouble and "for the care and welfare of dogs".

According to the New York Times, her original will listed "poor people" to benefit from her multi-billion-dollar estate. However, in the lastest reading of what her lawyers call her "mission statement", she specified that all of her money go for dogs only.

As shocking as her decision was to leave billions to dogs, Helmsley actually had previously given several million dollars to charities and hospitals. Additionally, her will left several millions to her brother and to two of her grandchildren. However, she provided nothing for two other grandchildren of her late son's wife. The reason given is that Leona was angry because they disobeyed her wishes that the children were to be named for her final husband, Harry.

Helmsley fought her way up from poor high-school dropout to become one of the most successful real estate brokers in the burgeoning New York City condo boom of the 1960s. After dumping two husbands, and already a millionaire herself, 45-year-old Leona linked up with another Manhattan real estate tycoon, 80-year-old Harry Helmsley, and their empire grew exponentially. After Harry divorced his wife of 30 years, they were married.

From the 1960s to the 1990s, the Helmsley holdings would include Park Avenue mansions, the Empire State Building, and luxury hotels Park Lane, New York Helmsley and the Helmsley Palace. They also had large estates in New York State, Connecticut and Florida. Meanwhile, as the empire grew, so did Leona's grossly inflated ego and reputation for cruelty to her employees.

When she advertised the Helmsley hotels in magazines and newspapers, she compared herself to a queen ruling over her dominion to assure hotel guests of perfect service. However, stories of her vicious demands on her employees, including firing those immediately if she

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