Blitzing Bichons and Friends

I found an ad on the internet in Puppy Find for a female Yorkie puppy on 1/13/04. I sent an email inquiring about the puppy and received a response on 1/14/04 that there was one female left and they required a $200 deposit to hold the puppy. I sent a certified check as requested. In February I was told that she had been at the vets all weekend and the puppies had died because the mother's milk was bad. She said she had another litter that would be ready the end of March.

I said I would wait and contacted her after several calls and emails in the beginning of March to find out how the puppies were doing. I received an email on 3/10/04 stating that "the person that got my yorkie adults, was suppose to give me the puppies and apparently has no intention on giving them to me." She said she would be returning my deposit as well as a deposit to Danielle C in the next few weeks. I waited until 3/24/04 and sent an email giving them my name and address again since I hadn't received the deposit back at that time. On 4/28/04 I emailed again requesting the return of my deposit, sent again on 4/29 and then again 5/5 with a receipt request showing delivery of the message.

I got a receipt back from their internet server, but no response from them. Danielle has contacted me and both of us have notified Puppy Find who said they have now removed them from their site.

The breeder responds:

I will be sending these two women their refund deposits.. They would have gotten them sooner, but My husband was out of work due to an injury and at the same time, our son was diagnosed with having cancer, brain tumor. So Even though things are tough, I will get them their money which yes they do deserve.

We thought we purchased a healthy puppy from a Florida breeder over the internet. We found her through Puppyfind.com. We first tried to solve this through this site only to have them act as a mediator for a couple of E-mail exchanges. Our problem IS NOT with puppyfind, it's with the breeder.

I have a bill of sale dated Nov. 23, 2003 for a puppy known as Bubba. By this time, Mrs. Fletcher had received and cashed a $498.00 money order. This was the price of Bubba and neutering. There was an agreement she would get him neutered and hold for shipping until Dec. 20, 2003. Over the following days and weeks with little response from her, she told us the dog was having problems healing from neutering thus she could not attain a health certificate from her vet to ship him. She could not even give us a date when he would be ready.

In an E-mail she states the dog had a valid health cert. issued 6 weeks before we purchased him. The health cert. is only valid for 30 days! Doesn't that mean she sold us a puppy without a valid cert.? That is illegal in her state of Florida. Here is the BIG problem, She was using the problem of healing from surgery to hide the fact the puppy contracted Contagious Ringworm approx. 8-10 days after we became legal owners. Under Florida's puppy lemon law, if the animal comes down with a contagious disease within 10 days of purchase, we have a legal right to a full refund. Section 5.

We also had sent her an additional $125.00 for shipping fees. A total of $623.00 she has received, cashed and spent by her own admission. We received an E-mail from Mrs. Fletcher on Sunday Dec. 14, 2003 stating the puppy had a "spot" that may be ringworm and that she was taking it to the vets on Monday the 15th to get checked. she also said the area of the surgery was a "hole leading into the body cavity". Later that evening on Sunday the 14th, we had a 3 way phone call with her and the vet., at that time it was revealed that the dog had already been being treated for Contagious Ringworm for the past 2 weeks. Also, Mrs. Fletcher, referred to the area of the surgery as a "LESION". We were told it could take any where from 2-6 weeks to heal.

So, on that day we found out we had been lied to and misled. Her vet went out of town on Dec. 15, 2003 and we are now told the vet will not be back until Jan. 6th, 2004. We have told her we NO LONGER WANT the puppy numerous times. She just ignores that and says she will send us the dog when it's healthy. To this day (12-27-2003) the dog cannot be issued a health cert. due to ongoing Ringworm. She came back with the threat of "I will not refund any of your money until I sell the dog to someone else." She also states a full refund may not happen because the dog has been neutered. Which I paid for anyway.

We are currently out $623.00. This was to be our 10 yr. old son's Christmas gift. He patiently waited 7 weeks just to find out he was not getting his Christmas wish. As of right now, we do not know when he'll get it either, since she will not refund our money and we do not have another $600.00 to go and buy another puppy.

The breeder responds:

They got their puppy. They asked me to have him neutered before he was sent and they also asked me to keep him an additional 6 weeks. When my Vet neutered this puppy, he kept pulling his stitches out. He had an open hole and it needed to heal.

The puppy had a FL health at 8 weeks old and my vet checked this puppy out again, when they wanted to buy him. I was not going to put another health cert on him, considering that a FL health cert for shipping a puppy is only good for the first 10 days. I put a FL health cert on him a few days before he was being shipped out.

They received their puppy and he is in great health, a pet companion. They never called or emailed me, as I requested to let me know that they picked him up.

This illustrates the problem with buying a puppy sight unseen. The only reliable way to do this is to visit the breeder's facility and make sure it is up to par.

I purchased a pure breed Bichon Frise from Carloyn F in June of 2002. After paying $600.00 for the dog and signing a very unprofessional spay/nueter contract she informed me that the dog could not be bred. She claimed this was because this was because the dog was only "pet quality". After finding out I could not breed the dog I was very upset that I spent so much money on a dog that I would not get the papers for until after he was neautered and that the papers were limited.

She then told me that if I sent her another $600.00 and pictures of the dog she wuld make him "breeding quality". To top it all off I have not received any proof that the papers even exist. I have many emails between the two of us that I have saved as proof. I love my dog and would never give him back but sometimes I wish that I would have just gone to the local pet store, as much as I despise it. It would have been a much smoother transaction.

The breeder responds:

Ms. O bought a Bichon Frise puppy with a written Spay/Neuter Contract.. SHe sat here and read it and then signed it. If she would have did more research she would have found out that she would have paid $1200 and up for a Bichon Frise of Breeding/Show potential and with Full AKC reg papers. I do take the best care of my animals, always have and always will. No one gave me Good quality Bichons when I was starting out in the Breeding, which I have been into for 12 years now. I hope to start Showing, also.

As far as Changing my name, I was going to change my web site domain name, because we live out in the woods with beautiful Oak trees and wildlife, but I have decided against it, long ago. People do now realize that alot of money is put into breeding, whether ever bred it is. Ms. Orton has a Pure Bred Bichon Frise, male that she bought from me, and she did sign a Spay /Neuter agreement which alot of other breeders have.

I never knew this site was here and never knew that my name was on it. But I will tell you. If You are buying a puppy from someone and you sign a contract and you have been told about it.. Then there is nothing wrong.. Maybe she should have read the contract again, and asked any questions she might have had.

But I will tell you, maybe I should start sending comments here about others that I think have done me wrong. If she thought I was in the wrong, she should have taken me to small claims court and then she would have found out, I did nothing wrong.