I looked at a yorkie puppy for $1100.00. I asked two questions, is the puppy AKC and is she from a puppy mill? I was told "She is registrable and we don't buy from puppy mills. She is from a local breeder registered with the USDA". I was told they had the puppy in the shop for two weeks and she is 12 weeks old. When the girl gave me the puppy, she said "how cute, she has the hiccups". I paid for the dog, the $12 for the food they require you to buy and started home. I live an hour away and within 20 minutes, the dog started stressing and was having trouble breathing.
I got home and immediately called the pet shop back. They told me she was just upset over the car ride home. I told the extremely rude girl that in looking at the papers they gave me, I could see by her birth date that she would only be 10 weeks the next week and she didn't even know how to drink out of a bowl. She told me I didn't know how to read her papers and now said they had her for at least 10 days and she was healthy and could drink out of a bottle.
I called my vet and they agreed to meet me after church the next day. The puppy had severe congestion, a respiratory infection and kennel cough. She did not have the hiccups, she was gasping from lack of oxygen because of her lungs being full of fluid. I called the pet shop back and they told me I should take the dog to their vet because he had declared her healthy. I explained that my vet has treated my animals for 6 years and I have full confidence in her. I was told, "we won't pay any vet bills to your vet". I called a month later and asked for her papers and was told they had not come in yet. I again asked about the breeder and was assured she was locally bred. I explained I had looked up the breeder's name and the kennel on the internet, and it shows a puppy mill with several complaints lodged against them in Waynesville, MO. She told me "don't believe everything you read on the internet".
I finally got the call to pick up her papers, they are not AKC but American Pet Registry. I said to her those are not AKC papers, to which she promptly replied "No, they aren't and when I sold you the dog, I just said she is registrable. I didn't specify where". I told her the papers are as useful as toilet paper and the dog was extremely sick, I have spent a fortune in vet bills. She said, "just sign this stating you picked up her papers, we can't do anything for you". It was just a coincidence, I supposed, that the papers came from Waynesville, MO. I still, after two months, have a sick puppy that is being treated for her kennel cough. The vet said "I'll bet you bought her in the mall in Morristown, right?" When I said I had and how did she know, she told me every puppy she has treated from there has been sick and all were determined to be healthy by their vet.
