Where do I begin???
In April of I found a breeder in Northern Kentucky (I live in Southwest Ohio - Cincinnati) on the internet. Her website seemed very professional. I spoke to this breeder a couple times on the phone and we also exchanged some e-mails. I agreed to pay this breeder $1,000 for a boxer pup from her next litter. After agreeing on the price, I then learned she could only sell me a white boxer for $1,000. I did not want a white dog. I wanted a brindle boxer and she said she charged $1,800 for her brindle pups. I told her thanks, but no thanks. I told her to let me know if she knew of somebody who would be willing to sell me a brindle boxer for under $1,000.
A few days later, she e-mailed me and said one of her "breeder friends" (Tara OConnor with EuroBoxx Boxers) was coming in to Northern Kentucky from North Carolina for a dog show. She said that Tara had a brindle boxer for sale for $800 and she gave me Tara's e-mail address and phone number so I could call her to discuss the dog.
I called Tara and I agreed to buy the dog for $750. The only reason I agreed to pay this much for the dog was because Tara told me she had purchased this dog for her breeding program and the only reason she was selling the dog was because she was changing her breeding program to "100% European" bloodlines instead of American and European bloodlines. The dog she was selling had American bloodlines. She said the dog was 18 months old and weighed 55 pounds. She also said the dog was house trained.
Well - I met her the first week of May at the Northern Kentucky breeder's house to buy the dog. She wrote up a contract, gave me the AKC papers and gave me the dog's health records. She said she noticed the dog's urine smelled bad that morning and she thought the dog might have a Urinary Tract Infection. She gave me some antibiotics to give the dog. She also gave the dog a 5-way annual shot while we stood there. She said the dog was due for its annual shots.
After having the dog for a few days, I learned the dog was not house trained. The only place she seemed to want to go pee was inside my house! I weighed the dog and she weighed just 44 pounds. Not 55 as the breeder had told me. I took a closer look at the AKC papers and everything was "whited out" on the back of the papers. After having the dog for a week, I took her in to my vet to be spayed. I asked my vet to go ahead and give her the 6-month injection for heartworm preventive and my vet said he would have to first test the dog to make sure she didn't have heartworms. He tested her and she tested positive for heartworms. My vet said it would cost approx. $500 to $600 to treat the dog.
After finding this out, I really started questioning whether or not the story I was told regarding the dog's history was accurate. The breeder lied about the following: 1) the dog's weight (44 lbs instead of 55 lbs as I was told), 2) the dog's age (I looked closer at the AKC papers and the dog was actually 20 months old insted of 18 months as Tara told me), 3) the dog being housetrained (she was not!) and 4) the health of the dog (she had heartworms).
I was able to hold the AKC papers up to the light and I could read the name and e-mail address of the owners of the dog prior to Tara owning the dog. I e-mailed that person and explained the whole story and basically asked that person for some more details regarding when they sold the dog to Tara and what was the real history of this dog. I carbon copied Tara on this e-mail. That person never responded, but Tara called me just an hour or two after sending that e-mail and finally started giving me some "half-truths". She admitted she just recently got the dog from some other local breeder by her and that "she took the dog out of a horrible situation". She said the dog was "filthy" when she got her. So she was basically admitting to me that she didn't in fact get this dog for her breeding program (which if you recall, was the only reason I was willing to pay so much for the dog). I figured if she had bought the dog for her breeding program, that it must be a pretty "high quality" dog as her breeding program seemed pretty good (based only on her website).
Trying to shorten this story - she said she would refund my money but that I would have to wait 2 months for her to return my money (1st week of July). I offered to meet her halfway between Cincy and North Carolina to return the dog to her and so she could return my money to me (as the contract we both signed stated she guaranteed the dog was healthy). She said she couldn't be away from her pups to meet me halfway. At that time, she had 2 new litters of pups she was attending to. However, just a week or so prior, one of those two litters was already born and she was able to drive to Northern Kentucky for a few days to participate in a dog show (and to sell me an unhealthy dog!). She said she already spent my money and she would not be able to return my money until July 1st (postmarked by that date). She also was only going to allow me to take the dog to a rescue or a no-kill shelter. None of the rescues would take her and all the no-kill shelters were full and definitely did not want to take a dog with heartworms even if they did have openings. I finally got Tara to agree to let me take the dog to any local shelter. I took her to a local animal shelter. At first they were going to euthanize her, but the dog's temperment was pretty good, so they told me they were going to treat her and put her up for adoption. This was good! However, Tara still would not agree to return my money to me until the first week of July.
Almost done!!! A week prior to July 1st, I e-mailed Tara and she said she was still planning to refund my $750 by July 1st. Well, July 1st came and went and my refund never showed up! I have called and e-mailed Tara the last couple days and she is no longer responding to my e-mails and won't answer her phone any more. So here I am. Writing this novel. Simply hoping to figure out a way to get my money back. At this point, I just want others to be aware of this lady and to recommend they look elsewhere for a breeder.
The moral to this story is to never buy a dog from an out-of-state breeder. Never buy a dog without first seeing the physical location where the dog has been living so you can confirm the information the breeder is telling you. And in general, don't trust people. I already had a hard time trusting people (so many crooks in this world these days) and this certainly didn't help.
Thanks, Josh
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