We’ve been wondering for days if Tatum O’Neal really did love her dog. Well, praise Jeebus, we have an answer!

Tatum O’Neal’s dog groomer has come along to confirm that Tatum did, in fact, love her dog, and also to defend Tatum saying that her doggy’s death was the reason for her attempted cocaine buying escapades earlier this week.

This may seem like a bunch of stupid nonsense from one deluded twit about another deluded twit who used her dead dog as a deluded, twitty excuse to buy drugs, but it’s not.

We forget why, though…

Tatum O’Neal has made it abundantly clear that she has had problems with drugs and alcohol throughout her life. After winning an Oscar at the age of 10, her life has been tainted by being molested as a child, being neglected by her mother, surviving an emotionally abusive father and his bachelor ways, finding John McEnroe attractive… all sorts of travesties.

So, when Tatum O’Neal’s 16-year-old Scottish terrier, Lena, died recently, Tatum had an emotional breakdown – not to mention a complete lapse in the mental coherency that would lead pretty much every other human on the planet to not go buying illegal stuff because their pet died – she unsuccessfully tried to buy some crack.

But before you go off saying ‘A dead dog is your embarrassing excuse, Tatum?! Pah!’, let’s hear from the one true expert on the situation: Tatum’s dog groomer, Jorge Bendersky. He gave details to OK! about Tatum’s love for her ridiculously old pooch:

“She loved that dog. She would bring her here super-often. I have so many clients, I can see them going through stuff with their dog; it’s devastating. And somebody who has the inclination, or had a path with some trouble, it could push you over the edge, more when you are attached to the dog as you are.”

This is why people with substance abuse issues like Tatum should start out with a fern or a bush or something, so that when it died she’d only lose her marbles enough to try and score some pot or go sniff a jar of rubber cement glue.

As unfortunate as the situation is, it makes one wonder what she would have tried to buy if she’d lost an actual human being. Automatic weapons with armour-piercing bullets? A nuclear warhead? A box set of Drew Barrymore movies? Yes, we’re as terrified as you are. Let’s just all pray she’s better able to handle her grief should such a situation arrive.