[trydare]

I made a rather large mistake and left the comfort and love of my local rescue, who are FANTASTIC, and adopted through a rescue from another province that I wasn't familiar with. I love the end result, which is my newest addition, Astro, but I'm rather cautious to try and dig deeper for fear that something illegal or unethical may have happened.

From the background I have received from this rescue, he was one of two pups that were breeder surrenders out of the US. His original foster mom, who was quit/fired during my adoption process, seemed to allude to some sort of exchange of money for vet costs to the breeder in exchange for the puppies. I should have ran away then.

During the process, I enlisted help from another rescue to help with the transportation as he was many hours away from me. Two people volunteered; one offered to fly him to me, and one would arrange for transportation by road. The lady who wanted to help by road also stated that she did not like my rescue and refused to help them, but since I was a forever home, she'd make an exception. I opted to do the flying route, but at the road route lady's caution, I should have ran away then, too.

I found out a few things upon receiving his paper work. The breeder neutered him on January 4th and he was at this rescue by January 6th. I received his neuter papers and after being examined by my vet, I was told this breeder would be considered a great breeder up here since she spent about $200 extra on extra tests during that very few owners do. I was also sent AKC papers (which no real rescue would have EVER sent me), covered in the breeders name and kennel (as were many of the papers I received)..which is all very strange and the whole transaction between breeder-rescue-adopter is very fishy.

I do not know what he was kept back for, as the breeder has a steady stream of yorkies and shih tzu's on her website that seem to leave around 10 weeks and he was kept until 6 months and then promptly shipped off. I'm guessing the rescue paid for the two pups, which is hugely unethical and makes me angry all over.

After the adoption was complete, I started receiving emails. There was a change of power within the rescue, and many had broken off to start a new rescue, and a legal power struggle over ownership of the rescues current dogs ensued. I, along with everyone who had adopted from this rescue, received many emails back and forth between the founder and the broken off group and lets just say they were not very pleasant. Their facebook group and website promptly disappeared.

Fast forward a couple weeks and I received two missed phone calls and a voice mail from said founder of the rescue. She wanted to let me know that she had Astro's brother and she wanted to discuss the adoption and just Astro in general. She stated she would phone again and would also email. This was nearly a month ago, and I have not gotten a call back or the email, and I am not about to return her phone call.

I googled her name and found a complaint on a website stating that she was a crook and her method of "rescuing dogs" was completely unethical. She charges different rates for every dog (not the usual standard rate for puppy, dog, and senior), and at one point was asking $800 for a rescue Biewer.

What have I gotten myself into? Should I be worried if the dog was acquired legally? I mean, the rescue had all his paperwork of which they wouldn't have if he had been stolen or something (you'd think), but I've been staring at his AKC papers for weeks wondering if I should file them for fear the breeder might come a runnin'. I have legal adoption papers from the rescue, but I guess that doesn't work if the rescue never got him legally in the first place...

Is there anything I should do to protect myself legally? And do I even bother filing AKC? It's not important to me, especially as he is a parti yorkie, and even if he wasn't, I'd never show or do any sanctioned events, anyways.