The fate of two French bulldogs named Toy Boy and Leona have prompted a criminal charge against the dogs’ former caregiver.

Kelly Slavin, 37, of Fairhaven, was arraigned Dec. 2 on a perjury charge in Edgartown district court stemming from her assertion that she had the dogs and was ready to turn them over to the owner, Charlene Garcia of West Tisbury.

Instead, according to allegations, the dogs had been surrendered to an animal control officer more than a year ago and placed in adoptive homes.

A not guilty plea was entered and a Jan. 6 pretrial hearing was scheduled for Ms. Slavin.

The dogs’ owner said in a statement filed with the court that when she was hospitalized for an accident in August 2009, she placed the two show dogs with a friend, who in turn gave them to Ms. Slavin to care for. But after repeated requests to return the dogs, Ms. Slavin allegedly refused.

That prompted Ms. Garcia to seek a larceny over $250 criminal charge against Ms. Slavin on Sept. 29. The parties appeared to settle when Ms. Slavin pledged to return the breeding dogs, worth an estimated $1,500 each, according to court documents. But the dogs had been surrendered in 2010 to a Fall River animal control officer, who had them fixed and placed in adoptive homes, said Rosemarie Haigazian, an attorney for the dogs’ owner, in court documents.

At one point, Ms. Slavin called the court to say she could not return the dogs, as she no longer had them, court documents allege.

“She clearly knew the owners wanted the dogs back, withheld them, and surrendered them [to animal control] claiming she owned them and knew she’d be caught if she told the truth at the hearing,” Ms. Haigazian said in her written testimony.

In a phone interview, Ms. Haigazian said the dogs were “owned by my client as show dogs. She had planned to breed them and show them.”

From a practical view, Ms. Haigazian said, since “someone took these dogs in as rescue dogs,” they shouldn’t be taken back.