Trouble, a white Maltese terrier, inherited $12 million dollars (£5.8 million) from late New York hotelier Leona Helmsley when the famously tyrannical billionaire, dubbed the Queen of Mean by American media after famously declaring “only the little people pay taxes”, died from congestitive heart failure in August 2007.

It seems Mrs Helmsley’s mutt shared its owner’s refined tastes. John Codey, the manager of Trouble’s trust fund and a man who presumably doesn't mind having orders barked at him, told US television network CBS that the annual cost of the dog’s security, medical care and grooming was around $300,000.

But now Trouble’s life of luxury has been disturbed after the rich bitch was hounded by over 20 death threats. The New York Post newspaper reported that the millionaire Maltese was whisked away under an assumed name and taken to an undisclosed location in Florida.

Know your enemy?

The source of the threats remains unknown but Trouble is said to have earned a number of enemies over the years due to her habit of biting. The Maltese terrier refused to eat from a bowl and staff had to feed her chef-prepared meals by hand which often led to nasty nips.

Mrs Helmsley’s former housekeeper Zamfira Sfara sued after the Maltese terrier bit her when she gave it a bath. She claimed the hotel magnate said “Good for you, Trouble” after the incident. In 2000, Trouble also sank her teeth into a diner in the restaurant of Mrs Helmsley’s Park Lane Hotel. Helmsley told her victim: “I guess Trouble doesn’t like you.”