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Mom2Milo · 02-03-2008, 06:14 PM

I used to just be a lurker and reader but I have decided to join up and post for the first time because of something that's happened to my little Milo and because of a nasty thread I saw here where people were upset at somebody not keeping a puppy because the puppy wasn't exactly what she wanted.

A couple weeks ago, I placed an ad online asking for a small dog of any breed to accompany our Yorkie and be a buddy to him. I got a response that told me she had a little male Yorkie that she'd sell me for 200 dollars without papers and 600 dollars with the papers. She basically saw my posting, thought he'd be great with another friend, and wanted to discourage breeding by charging so much more for the papers. I never had any intention of breeding. How could I?? I was going to have 2 males. So this really seemed like it was going to work out excellently.

We met them at a neutral location, and I picked Milo up. He was absolutely gorgeous. The first thing we noticed was that he didn't like to be held. So on the drive back, he was in the back seat the whole time. When we got home though, he was near impossible to get into our house. He actually BIT me when I tried to reach for him!

I called up this lady right away and tried to figure out what could cause this. Then she offered up a piece of advice that I probably should have been made aware of earlier: she had gotten him out of a puppy mill situation (or so she thinks). He had basically had no socialization at all prior to going to this lady. She was selling him to us because she had fallen ill and didn't have much time for him anymore.

Over the next week or so, he got a lot better. He still didn't like to spend a lot of time with people, but he wasn't hostile anymore. Honestly, I'd thought about taking him back and just getting a refund because I feel that I should have been made aware of how timid he is and his background, but I didn't want to give up. I felt I owed him more than that. I was his 3rd owner in his 9 months of life.

Eventually, I felt comfortable taking him outside to go potty without a leash on. Then, a couple of days ago, when I was taking him out he took off. Me calling him did absolutely no good...he stopped a couple of times to look back and that was it. I didn't have shoes on and couldn't run after him without them, so I had to go back inside and run upstairs to get them quickly so I could go out and run after him. When I got back outside, I didn't see him right away. I ran down in the direction he was running though and eventually I found out what'd happened to him. He'd ran into traffic and gotten hit by a car. I'd never dealt with a dog that was so skittish and scared before and so liable to run. I'd never had any experience with a "puppy mill" dog.

I guess the moral of the story was that I wanted to help save a dog and ended up doing a disservice. I don't feel personally responsible, but I also didn't get what was represented to me. For what it's worth, I also haven't gotten the shot records I was promised to be mailed to me. I guess it doesn't matter now. This just goes to show that perhaps people who feel that, when they get a dog who maybe has issues that they weren't aware of and perhaps can't deal with, it's a good idea to re-home the dog or try to give it back aren't bad people.

02-03-2008, 06:14 PM	#1
Mom2Milo BANNED! Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: St. Louis Posts: 58	Tragedy with our Milo :( I used to just be a lurker and reader but I have decided to join up and post for the first time because of something that's happened to my little Milo and because of a nasty thread I saw here where people were upset at somebody not keeping a puppy because the puppy wasn't exactly what she wanted. A couple weeks ago, I placed an ad online asking for a small dog of any breed to accompany our Yorkie and be a buddy to him. I got a response that told me she had a little male Yorkie that she'd sell me for 200 dollars without papers and 600 dollars with the papers. She basically saw my posting, thought he'd be great with another friend, and wanted to discourage breeding by charging so much more for the papers. I never had any intention of breeding. How could I?? I was going to have 2 males. So this really seemed like it was going to work out excellently. We met them at a neutral location, and I picked Milo up. He was absolutely gorgeous. The first thing we noticed was that he didn't like to be held. So on the drive back, he was in the back seat the whole time. When we got home though, he was near impossible to get into our house. He actually BIT me when I tried to reach for him! I called up this lady right away and tried to figure out what could cause this. Then she offered up a piece of advice that I probably should have been made aware of earlier: she had gotten him out of a puppy mill situation (or so she thinks). He had basically had no socialization at all prior to going to this lady. She was selling him to us because she had fallen ill and didn't have much time for him anymore. Over the next week or so, he got a lot better. He still didn't like to spend a lot of time with people, but he wasn't hostile anymore. Honestly, I'd thought about taking him back and just getting a refund because I feel that I should have been made aware of how timid he is and his background, but I didn't want to give up. I felt I owed him more than that. I was his 3rd owner in his 9 months of life. Eventually, I felt comfortable taking him outside to go potty without a leash on. Then, a couple of days ago, when I was taking him out he took off. Me calling him did absolutely no good...he stopped a couple of times to look back and that was it. I didn't have shoes on and couldn't run after him without them, so I had to go back inside and run upstairs to get them quickly so I could go out and run after him. When I got back outside, I didn't see him right away. I ran down in the direction he was running though and eventually I found out what'd happened to him. He'd ran into traffic and gotten hit by a car. I'd never dealt with a dog that was so skittish and scared before and so liable to run. I'd never had any experience with a "puppy mill" dog. I guess the moral of the story was that I wanted to help save a dog and ended up doing a disservice. I don't feel personally responsible, but I also didn't get what was represented to me. For what it's worth, I also haven't gotten the shot records I was promised to be mailed to me. I guess it doesn't matter now. This just goes to show that perhaps people who feel that, when they get a dog who maybe has issues that they weren't aware of and perhaps can't deal with, it's a good idea to re-home the dog or try to give it back aren't bad people.