Lisa Vanderpump, 58, has written her first blog post about the PuppyGate scandal, scolding both Dorit Kemsley for breaking her adoption agreement and the cast’s reaction to the drama. Dorit adopted a puppy named Lucy Lucy Apple Juice from Lisa’s nonprofit, Vanderpump Dogs, but eventually gave her away to a new owner. She justified the hand-off by saying the dog allegedly bit one of her children, but Lisa claimed she wasn’t informed of the incident. “I had spoken to Dorit a few days prior, and she explained to me that a woman had come to her house and fallen in love with Lucy, and that the little dog was apparently going to a new home ‘for a much better life,'” the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star wrote in a Bravo post on March 6. “I wasn’t angry with her, but I couldn’t understand why she didn’t return Lucy…There was no mention of biting.”
LVP added that the puppy was “not a traumatized rescue dog” with a “history of biting,” as she was raised by the staff of Vanderpump Dogs. So when the foundation was alerted that Lucy Lucy Apple Juice made her way from the second owner to a shelter with “euthanasia facilities,” her staff freaked out. “I sent Dorit a text urging her to get in front this issue. I would have thought that would have included Dorit going down to the center and calming an already emotional young staff, reassuring them that her intentions, albeit careless, had no malintent,” Lisa wrote.
While Lisa continued to defend her castmate, she suspected that Dorit didn’t know Lucy Lucy Apple Juice’s second owner that well: “I don’t believe for one minute that Dorit would’ve knowingly left the puppy in a shelter, but she was guilty of a careless choice. When I alerted her to the fact that Lucy was in a shelter and asked if she could please give me the name of the woman who had taken Lucy, she asked to call me back – she wanted to be sure of the name…I don’t believe she knew the name of the woman, but maybe her assistant did.”
Yes, Lisa gave Dorit a slap on the wrist, but she’s now tired of the “endless nastiness and accusations” from her co-stars as word got around about the dog drama. “Frankly, the synopsis is that I have always endeavored to protect Dorit and I was accused of it once more,” she wrote, summarizing her frustration over this Season 9 story line. “But, I don’t give a damn at this point. As all of the women focus on who is to blame for exposing Puppy Gate, I choose to focus on the excellent work my foundation does on a daily basis.” That “excellent work” included finding Lucy Lucy Apple Juice “a loving home,” a mission that her nonprofit accomplished. But the drama, which Lisa called an “emotional nightmare,” is still too fresh for Lisa — she hasn’t watched any Season 9 episodes of RHOBH.
A day before Lisa posted her side of the story, Teddi Mellencamp accused the restaurant entrepreneur of instructing Vanderpump Dogs’ events planner, John Blizzard, to “tell” Teddi about Lucy Lucy Apple Juice’s shelter story. However, LVP appeared shock when she read the printed text messages exchanged between Teddi and her employee on the March 5 episode of RHOBH. After the episode aired, Teddi suggested that Lisa was involved in fueling the flames of this scandal, contrary to everything the British TV star wrote in the blog post above. But Lisa maintained her distance from their text conversations, as she wrote in her blog post, “Dr. John Sessa [Lisa’s nonprofit partner] replied that John Blizzard had already told Teddi. He was often in contact with her and a gossipy text had been sent, which I witnessed later. I hadn’t spoken to Blizzard in quite some time as I rarely interact with him outside of preparing for our annual fundraising Gala – I do have approximately 400 employees.”