Woman charged in dog's hot-car death

By Mike McPhate

A woman has been charged with animal cruelty after her yellow Labrador retriever died in an overheated car while she shopped at a Costco in Frederick, authorities said.

Cathryn Washington, 67, left 14-year-old Delta in the vehicle as she ran in to buy some pet products on an afternoon when the temperature hit 104 degrees, Sgt. David Luckenbaugh of Frederick Animal Control said.

She intended to just be 15 minutes or so, she later told her estranged husband Charles Washington. She returned after about an hour and 15 minutes to find Delta clinging to life. “The dog just died in her arms,” Charles said he told her.

Cathryn, a former nursing professor at Seattle Pacific University, had only had sole custody of the pet for less than two weeks, the outcome of a “vindictive” separation from Charles in recent months, he said.

Charles, of Seattle, said he was much closer with the dog. The retired Army dentist said he reared her since she was a puppy, feeding her, walking her, brushing her hair, taking her for shots and camping with her. In 2008, the family spent between $3,600 and $3,800 for an emergency hysterectomy, he said.

But in the bitterness of separation after 38 years of marriage, Charles said, she insisted on bringing Delta with her as she moved out east. “My family said, 'just let it go' when she said she wanted the dog.” So, he did.

Eleven days later Delta was dead.

A message left at a phone number for Cathryn was not returned. Luckenbaugh said Cathryn is a resident of Fairmont, W.Va. It wasn't known what brought her to Frederick.

Luckenbaugh said the precise moment of Delta’s death was unclear. After Cathryn returned to the vehicle, investigators say she went back inside the Costco and returned the dog food, bedding and treats she had purchased. At that point, she told Costco employees the dog was dead, authorities said.

A worker followed Cathryn out to her car and saw what appeared to be a dead dog. The store notified Frederick Animal Control, whose investigators caught up with Cathryn at another location, authorities said.



Charles said Delta was a “sweetheart,” the kind of dog that insisted on sleeping in the bed with him, brushed up against his legs endlessly, and looked at him with sad eyes when he left the house.

In a moment of sentimentality when Delta was a pup, Charles said he put aside her baby teeth as a keepsake. He still has them.

“I probably always will,” he said.

Washington is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 31.

-- Mike McPhate