Couple’s 2-year-old dog dies after PetSmart grooming appointment and they want answers why

A Henrietta couple is searching for answers after their 2-year-old dog, Elphie, died less than an hour after being picked up from a grooming appointment at a PetSmart on Jefferson Road, according to a News10NBC report by Erin Mahon.

Mahon reported that Amanda Putnam and Geno Taccone had brought Elphie to the same PetSmart once before, back in April, and said that first visit went well. Elphie came home looking clean, smelling good, and showing no signs that anything was wrong.

But after a grooming appointment on Tuesday, the couple told Mahon that everything changed quickly. When they picked Elphie up, they said she was panting heavily, vomiting, and refusing to drink water.

“I was like, putting it – like trying to get it into her mouth just because this was truly my worst fear,” Putnam told Mahon. “And unfortunately, it happened.”

Elphie Had Seemed Normal Before The Appointment

Mahon asked Putnam whether Elphie had been showing any of those symptoms when they brought her to the appointment.

“No, she was absolutely her normal self,” Putnam said.

The couple had adopted Elphie in March from Lollypop Farm, the Humane Society of Greater Rochester, which provided them with the dog’s medical history. Putnam showed Mahon records indicating that Elphie had a heart murmur, though she said a veterinarian had told them it was not life-threatening.

That detail has become part of the larger question around Elphie’s death because it may matter medically, but the couple still wants to understand what happened between the time they dropped her off and the time they rushed her to emergency care.

When Elphie’s symptoms worsened after the appointment, Taccone began calling emergency veterinary offices. The nearest place with an available room was in East Rochester, and Putnam said Elphie’s lips began turning blue during the drive.

“They told us she arrested,” Taccone said, recalling the moment veterinary staff came back with the news.

The couple said the emergency vet asked whether they wanted CPR and life-saving measures attempted. They said yes, but within minutes, Elphie died.

A Respiratory Crisis And A High Temperature

Mahon reported that the couple said the vet told them Elphie had suffered a respiratory crisis and had an extremely high temperature. Monroe County Legislature Majority Leader Michael Yudelson later said the dog died from heat exhaustion and respiratory failure despite life-saving efforts.

Yudelson is now calling for an inspection of the PetSmart location in Henrietta, saying the couple deserves answers about what happened while Elphie was in the company’s care.

“We don’t know for sure what happened when Elphie was left in the care of PetSmart that day,” Yudelson said in a statement cited in Mahon’s report. “No one is assigning blame at this point, but at a minimum, Geno and Amanda are owed an explanation.”

That is a careful statement, and it matters because the available information still leaves major questions unresolved. The family’s grief is real, the timing is troubling, and the symptoms they describe are alarming, but without a necropsy, there is no final medical finding that fully explains why Elphie died.

For pet owners, that lack of certainty can be almost as painful as the loss itself. When a healthy-seeming dog goes into a grooming appointment and dies shortly after pickup, the natural response is to search for one clear answer, even when the evidence does not yet provide one.

PetSmart Says It Found Nothing Unusual

Mahon reported that the couple remained in communication with PetSmart after Elphie’s death. The company offered to pay for a necropsy and for the gas needed to make the two-hour drive connected to that process, but Putnam and Taccone declined.

Putnam told Mahon they were not emotionally able to go through that process right after losing Elphie.

“We also were not in any place emotionally to go buy a cooler, drive back to the emergency vet, put our dog in a cooler and drive her,” Putnam said.

PetSmart later sent Mahon a statement saying it was deeply saddened by Elphie’s death and had reviewed salon records and video footage from her visit. The company said it found “no indication of an unusual event or any safety concern.”

According to PetSmart, Elphie appeared alert and comfortable during and after her service, and the salon operating temperatures were within normal ranges. The company also said it does not use heated kennel dryers in its grooming salons.

PetSmart said its offer to cover the necropsy, reimburse the grooming service, and help with related veterinary costs remains open. Mahon reported that the company also offered the couple a chance to review salon footage from Elphie’s appointment.

Lollypop Farm Closed Its Investigation

Lollypop Farm also reviewed the incident after Elphie’s death. Mahon reported that its Humane Law Enforcement team was notified and opened an investigation, speaking with veterinary staff at Rochester Emergency Veterinary Clinic.

According to Lollypop Farm, veterinary staff did not observe signs of trauma, abuse, or other suspicious circumstances and could not identify a specific cause for Elphie’s condition based on the exam.

Because Elphie was cremated and no necropsy was performed, Lollypop Farm said investigators could not determine the exact cause of death. Based on the information available and the lack of evidence pointing to cruelty or neglect, the investigation was closed.

That conclusion does not answer every question the couple has, and it does not lessen the shock of what happened. It simply shows the limits of an investigation when the most important medical evidence is no longer available.

Putnam seemed to acknowledge that reality when Mahon asked about the response from Lollypop Farm.

“I understand with the not doing a necropsy that does complicate things,” Putnam said. “I think what we really want is to just see if they have any cameras in the salon, if there was anything that could have contributed to that.”

The Couple Wants To See The Footage

Putnam and Taccone told Mahon they are interested in reviewing the PetSmart footage from Tuesday. They said it will not bring Elphie back, but it may help them understand more about what happened during the appointment.

“We’re not looking to assign blame,” Putnam said in Mahon’s report. “We just want to know if something could have possibly contributed while she was there.”

That is a reasonable distinction, especially in a case where grief, uncertainty, and corporate review are all meeting at once. The couple is not saying they already know every answer; they are saying the timeline is too painful and too sudden to leave unexplained.

For many families, pets are not treated as property or routine appointments on a calendar. They are part of daily life, and when a young dog dies in such a short window after a grooming visit, the emotional weight is hard to separate from the demand for facts.

A Call For Answers After A Sudden Loss

Mahon reported that Yudelson’s call for an inspection came after Elphie’s death and the couple’s search for more information. The case now sits in a difficult place, with PetSmart saying its internal review found no safety issue, Lollypop Farm saying it found no signs of trauma or abuse, and Elphie’s owners still wondering what caused the rapid decline they saw after pickup.

The lack of a necropsy means there may never be a single confirmed answer, but the couple’s request to see the salon footage may still provide some clarity about Elphie’s time inside the grooming area.

PetSmart said that opportunity remains available, and Putnam and Taccone told Mahon they want to see it.

For now, Elphie’s death has left a Henrietta couple grieving a dog they had adopted only months earlier and asking whether anything during a routine grooming appointment could have contributed to the emergency that followed. The investigation may be closed from Lollypop Farm’s side, but for Elphie’s owners, the search for answers is not over.