This is my story, but I am personally aware of at least five others who have stories similar to mine, some of whom received Seriously Ill dogs from jacqui johnson. From November of last year until January, I was working with a Florida dog breeder for the purchase of a male show-potential puppy. I'd been checking locally for several months, and had found a "stand-offishness" among chihuahua breeders (due to competition, the very small litters which mean that show potential chi's are not "readily" produced, many not wanting to be bothered by "unproven" newbies).
I started to look more nationally. My goals were in finding a dog with a personality that would blend into our home, a geneology free of genetic defects, and a mentor relationship with a show breeder. I found Jacqui Beth Johnson (living in Bradenton, FL & South Bend, IN) on a number of the chihuahua lists to which I belong, and we had numerous email, phone, and instant message conversations. I researched the validity of her dogs' geneologies/lines and show records, and found out that she breed and show good quality dogs. That's when I became familiar with tigger (a six month old male) and decided to start buying him. I started to make payments for him and his transportation expenses, and paid the total amount due $2250.00 in early Jan by check and postal money orders.
During this time, she made me what I thought was a good deal on a brood bitch named jamie, which I accepted, so the contract was changing and therefore took time for her to create. I She sent me a draft contract by email (which I still have) with all the terms, and I corrected some errors, added some "right of survivorship" type stuff (to which we'd both agreed) and then printed, signed and sent the new contract back to her, along with four checks (one for $250, and three for $200, to be cashed one per month starting 1 Feb). The terms for cashing the checks were spelled out by her in her draft contract to me, as well as in the revised contract that was returned. I left the dates off of the checks incase I was able to pay anything any sooner.
In the meantime however, I finally did come to know a local breeder, who made a point of asking me to "be careful" because Jacqui has become known in the chi community for "changing the terms, and continually wanting more money." Of course, I don't find this out until after I'd returned the contract. Sure enough, when it came time to send tigger and jamie, all of a sudden she stated that she had had money problems and couldn't send them until later in January, then she said that she couldn't send them until later in Feb, because jamie was coming into heat, when I wanted to go down there to pick them up she said that she couldn't possible let either one of them go until they were both paid for so why didn't I just apply the money that I'd use for the trip.in other words, there was always an excuse.
I told this lady that she was right, and she started opening doors for me with respected breeders (respect with their lines as well as personally), who then confirmed Jacqui's reputation (or lack of Good reputation), and that this has happened to a number of others. None of the really good breeders who are knowledgable and known withing the chihuahua community, will deal with her, which explains why most of Jacqui's dogs are sold/sent to Mexico, Puerto Rico and Central America.
Ok, I was in a spot... And told Jacqui (in the latter half of January) to go ahead and use the first check of the four on the 1st of Feb to send tigger to me and that we'd skip the purchase of Jamie. I further told her to send the other three checks back to me and when I could save up enough for my female, I'd talk to her then. She then told me that she'd send me another female, to which I said no (I have these emails). Well, the last week of January she deposited all four checks (contrary to the terms of the contracts) and though there was no money in my checking account, my bank's overdraft protection paid $450 and bounced the other two. I called Jacqui and asked her why she did this... And she stated that she was mad.
I've successfully stopped payment on the remaining two checks, and am now working with a network of breeders who are assisting me in stopping this woman. Evidently no one has really pursued Jacqui, preferring to just eat their losses (from not receiving the correct dog, to not receiving one at all, to receiving their dog only to find that the animal was totally misrepresented and unable to be shown).
I'm now strategizing with this small network of breeders on dealing with this. But the chihuahua show network overall is furious because Jacqui is a bad apple in the dog community, and they also feel that it's time to stop.
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