HOUSTON -- Imagine leaving your dog with someone only to return home to discover that your beloved pet has died. It happened to a Houston woman and to make matters worse, she was not able to properly bury her animal, the Troubleshooters reported Friday.

Dorothy Ostergren wants some answers as to why her dog, Ginger, suddenly died while at a local kennel.

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Video: Kennel Closes After Cremation Controversy

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"To have her for four years and have her taken away like that, it wasn't fair," Ostergren said. "She was a young healthy dog, and she had no problems."

But when Ostergren's daughter came to pick up the dog after a two-week family vacation, she was stunned to learn that not only was Ginger dead, she had been cremated at another facility.

"They pretended that the dog belonged to one of the workers and took the dog over to a clinic and had the dog cremated," daughter Nancy Strutz said.

"It leaves us wondering, what actually happened to my dog?" Ostergren said.

It left the Local 2 Troubleshooters wondering, too, so they tracked down the owner of the Boarding and Grooming Pet Center off West Little York.

"Why did you have the animal cremated?" Local 2's Robert Arnold asked.

"Because I had no place to store the dog. We did not have the name of her vet to take the dog to her vet," owner Michelle Moellenberndt said.

"It was on the tags -- in case of an emergency, call the vet," Arnold said.

Both the name and phone number of Ginger's vet was on her tags. But employees never looked and they never took the dog to any vet, even though they claimed Ginger was acting lethargic when she was brought in.

"If you could pretend the dog was yours to get it cremated, why couldn't you pretend it was yours to get it to a vet?" Strutz said.

Moellenberndt did not have an answer for that question either, but pointed out that neither Ostergren nor Strutz left an emergency contact number.

"Somewhere along the line I filled out something for her," Ostergren said.

She said that because she has taken her dogs there for years, she just assumed they had everything they needed on file. But it still does not explain why Ginger was cremated.

"Why couldn't you have had the dog stored? It was my mom's dog. It was her decision to decide what to do with it," Strutz said.

But they are more concerned at how the dog died because Ginger has a sister that belongs to Ostergren's son, Eric.

If she had some kind of birth defect of some sort, or if she did have seizures, we don't know if we need to expect that our dog Zoe can have the same problem," Eric Ostergren said.

The family has taken all of their dogs to be checked out with a vet. So far, all of them are in perfect health. But they plan on keeping a closer eye on their pets and on individuals who watch them from now on.

"If nothing else, she owes my mom an apology for the way she handled things and hopefully she will learn how to better handle her business," Strutz said.

But the Boarding and Grooming Pet Center is now out of business.

"We're closed," Moellenberndt said.

"Forever?" Arnold asked.

"Yes," she answered.

"Because of this?" Arnold said.

"Because of this -- it's just too much," Moellenberndt said.

The Ostergrens said that the center did take excellent care of their pets for years.

When Ginger died, they were also boarding another dog and they paid for those services. But the owner told Local 2 that she doesn't want their money and is planning on sending the check back, along with a sympathy card.