What a dog-gone mess!
A Brooklyn woman is barking mad after her ex-girlfriend allegedly stripped her of visitation rights to Lily, their Labrador retriever.
Social worker Rebecca Finkel says in a new lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court that she had been peacefully sharing joint custody of the yellow lab with former gal-pal flight attendant Michelle Quintus since their 2004 breakup. But her ex then suddenly pilfered the pooch last month — and dumped the dog on the woman from whom they had adopted her years ago, according to the suit.
“The dog was like a child to me,” Finkel, 34, told The Post yesterday. “And I want my dog back.”
For years after their breakup, Finkel said, she and Quintus maintained a pact that allowed Lily to split time between her Park Slope apartment and her ex’s spread in Valley City, Ohio.
The two women would meet halfway between Brooklyn and Ohio, Finkel said, with the 8-year-old dog enjoying city and country living.
“We gave the dog an amazing home and life,” she said. “[Our] breakup happened many years ago, and we continued to share the dog successfully.”
But that arrangement ended last month, her lawsuit charges, when Quintus refused to return Lily to Finkel and instead turned her over to Lourdes Garcia, a friend who lives in The Bronx.
Garcia had given up Lily as a puppy, Finkel said, so that she and Quintus could raise her in Brooklyn.
“In nine years, she didn’t contribute financially or otherwise,” said Finkel of Garcia, adding that the dog’s adoption papers remained with Garcia. “She was not a part of this dog’s life.”
After learning last month that Quintus had moved Lily from Ohio to Garcia’s two-bedroom Bronx apartment, Finkel said she asked to get the dog back.
In response, she said, Garcia fired off a terse text message.
“I have no interest in sharing Lily in the way you shared with Michelle,” the text read, according to Finkel. “I do appreciate what you’ve done for her over the years. Please do not contact me again.”
Quintus, 42, and Garcia, 51, did not return phone calls.
Finkel said she’s worried about the dog’s health and comfort in her new Bronx home, which she said is shared with Garcia and her two adult kids. The suit seeks unspecified damages from the two women for the “wrongful taking” of the dog and to have Lily returned to Finkel.
“This is not an OK arrangement,” Finkel said. “Lourdes is not part of sharing Lily.”