Ellen DeGeneres in tears over dog

Ellen DeGeneres was in tears on her talk show Tuesday.

DeGeneres, 49, and her partner, Portia de Rossi, took home a Brussels Griffon mix named Iggy on Sept. 20, but after the dog was unable to co-exist with the pair's cats, Ellen handed him off to her hairdresser. By giving her pup away, she was violating an agreement she had with the rescue agency.

When the agency called to follow-up on the adoption, they discovered that Iggy had been given away. They quickly dispatched a rep to the hairdresser's home and removed Iggy.

"I guess I signed a piece of paper that says if I can't keep Iggy, it goes back to the rescue organization, which is not someone's home, which is not a family," Ellen said, in tears over the situation. Ellen had spent $3,000 to have Iggy neutered and trained to live with her cats. But, in the end, Iggy was too energetic and rambunctious, she said.

"I thought I did a good thing. I tried to find a loving home for the dog because I couldn't keep it," Ellen explained of offering the pup to her hairdresser, who has two daughters, both heartbroken when Iggy was taken away.

"Because I did it wrong, those people went and took that dog out of their home, and took it away from those kids," Ellen said, teary-eyed. "I feel totally responsible for it and I'm so sorry. I'm begging them to give that dog back to that family. It's not their fault. It's my fault. I shouldn't have given the dog away. Just please give the dog back to those little girls."