While my husband was deployed with the Army to Afghanistan, he decided that, upon his return home, he wanted to purchase our 2-year-old little girl a boxer puppy to grow up with. He then began his search to find the perfect little companion for our daughter. After many weeks of research, we decided that "Bartlett's Boxers", out of Nacogdoches, TX, had the best boxers around... Boy were we wrong, but I'll get to that in a minute.
Two days after my husband's return home, we traveled to Nacogdoches to pick up the puppy that we had already fallen in love with, not to mention paid for, just by the precious pic that Mrs. Bartlett had posted of her on her website. We were prepared to drive up to some immaculate setup where these lovely dogs were able to just run and bounce and play since the website portrays them to be such a big part of their family. That was DEFINITELY not the case! I guess this should have been our red flag, but like I said, we were already in love with this precious little, paid-for puppy. We were welcomed into their mobile home which stunk HORRIBLY of dog urine and feces. I will admit, however, that our little pup was sooooo cute when they brought her to us, it made the odors just seem to disappear.
After meeting the newest member of our family, we were escorted outside to see their "kennels". On their website it states, "Our boxers are kept in our home and have a fenced back yard to get plenty of exercise. We do have outside large kennels used when necessary to contain a male and female to ensure the intended breeding and guarantee proper AKC dna bloodlines." This is the biggest crock I have ever heard!!! These poor dogs were stomping around in these kennels in DAYS worth of urine and feces, and let me remind you this was in March when it was still freezing outside! It was obvious by the piles of secretions that these poor babies were rarely, if ever, let outside to go potty. And the part about the dogs being kept in their home is far from possible as their home is fairly small and there were at least a dozen full-grown dogs in those kennels. Even though their home smelt as if there were a dozen grown dogs living in there, I seriously doubt that was ever the case.
Needless to say, we forced ourselves to resist the urge to pile all of those poor dogs in the back of our SUV and take them home with us to rescue them from those horrible living conditions, and drove away with our new puppy, Lexcee.
Here's where the story really takes a turn for the worse... Lexcee started developing red patches on her front legs about 1 month after we brought her home. They didn't seem to be bothering her, so I just figured that it was maybe a simple case of dermatitis or something. After a couple weeks, however, the spots began to spread so I decided to take her to our vet. She was immediately diagnosed with Red Mange, which is a form of mange that is not contagious, but that is hereditary from the mother, therefore making our dog unable to breed.
After leaving the vet, I immediately contacted Mrs. Bartlett by phone and explained the situation. She insisted that my puppy must have been through some very stressful situation, inducing this breakout and that she had never had any incidents of this happening in any of the other puppies she had sold or owned. I explained to her that regardless of what she believed induced it, the fact is that she has it and had had it from birth and that I wanted to know what she was going to do to rectify the fact that I had paid $1600 for a puppy with a hereditary disease. Mrs. Bartlett then told me that she would be happy to give me another puppy, so I told her that I would speak with my husband and get back to her with what we chose to do from there.
Less than a week later, I emailed Mrs. Bartlett to notify her that we were ready to take our new puppy that she offered. We really had no need for another puppy, but decided we would gladly take one since she refused to reimburse us for any of the vet costs to treat this miserable disease. She then emailed me back a few days later to let me know that if we wanted another puppy, she would be glad to sell me a white boxer at a STEAL price of only $600!!! Like we were REALLY gonna BUY another puppy from her!!!
At that point, I knew this woman was nothing but a fraud and that any attempt made by us to persuade her to rectify this situation was in vain. I'm convinced that she has been in this situation before by the fact that on the phone, she was eager to give me another puppy. Then, when I got smart and began to communicate with her via email so that I would have her promises in writing, she began to back-peddle on her generous offer. I am in the process of reporting this person to the American Kennel Club (AKC), the Office of the Attorney General Consumer Division, the Better Business Bureau, and anything else I can think of that may keep her from doing this to another family.
My poor dog has now lost about 50% of her hair, which I have been told by our vet will probably not come back. She has bleeding sores all over her from scratching so much because she itches so badly. Unfortunately, I can't get my pics to download or you would be able to see how horrible she looks with all these sores on her. She would have been a remarkably beautiful dog, but will now literally be scarred for life because of this condition. This woman is a horrible person for breeding these dogs that she knows produce these poor puppies that have to live with this miserable disease.
We love Lexcee unconditionally, regardless of what she looks like and would not trade her for the world as we couldn't have asked for a dog with a better "dogality". I just hope that anyone who is thinking about purchasing a dog from this woman reads this story, as well as the story of the lady on here who purchased a dog with Parvo from her. Please don't give this woman anymore business... She doesn't deserve it!!!
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