I found out "the hard way" about bad breeders over twenty years ago! I was a really busy older single Mom and my pediatrician decided that a pet would be good for my Amanda and would really help her to understand the concept of "adoption". His theory ... take her to see the puppy with her doggy Mom and explain that when we took the baby home that
she would now be "Mom" and would love and care for the puppy! I held a very responsible position as Administrative Assistant for a state funded EMS Educational facility and that, coupled with the fact that my "world" revolved around Amanda, gave me very little time for anything else! My young secretary [who was also my friend] was the most enthusiastic dog lover I have ever met and jumped right on the "hunt for the perfect baby" for Amanda!! I was just simply too busy to "sweat the small stuff" so I left the search entirely up to her. She stayed on the phone for weeks searching from Birmingham to Atlanta! She burst into my office one afternoon so excited! "I found it, I found it ... but we have to go
now ... they wouldn't hold the puppy and they close at 5 ... I'll drive!!" she said! We were in her car and halfway to the school to pick up Amanda before I knew where we were going and "what" she had found!
The "where" was a pet shop on the other side of Birmingham and the "what" was a "teacup Poodle" ... yeah, right!! The mother of the puppy was there ... very pretty dog ... but the baby?? That was the most beautiful few ounces of white fur I have ever seen! She was sooo tiny [and supposed to be 8 weeks old!] we all three just fell madly in love with her! We were so excited and soon were on the way home with a carload of baby things and the little furball. I realized weeks later that it was odd that all I had in the way of "papers" was a receipt on which was scrawled "poodle pup"!! The owner said she didn't have the papers back on the litter registration from AKC and she would mail it to me. I left all the "follow up" to my friend and she made the vet appointment and we took Nicole for a checkup .... the vet just fell in love with her too. She had a small hernia and we waited to fix that until she was spayed at 6 months. Armed with our shot schedule and everything else ... including a playpen where we had to raise her because she was sooo tiny ... we began the task of spoiling her rotton. And she began to grow!!! Within a short time I noticed she was REALLY growing! I took her to the vet and told him "I swear, there's a St. Bernard in there!! He looked her over and proclaimed her to be pretty regular but not teacup nor even tiny! I was furious ... he was clutching her up against his beard and stepped back saying "But, we are ALL attached to her!" I said "Well, it's obvious that ONE of us is!!" I couldn't have parted with her for anything ... but I was just soooo mad, knowing I had been lied to about the dog! When I got home I called my secretary and told her what I learned from the vet ... I told her ... you got me into this mess so you get to the bottom of it and
get those papers ... I just wanted to get the details of what had happened. Really long story short ... the woman at the pet shop wasn't the owner ... she was an employee who was caught selling her own dogs in the owners absence!! She was fired and we were never able to find her ... the real owner profusely apoligized and ... we loved our 14 lb. "teacup" Nicole for 13 years!! I still grieve for her even six years after her death! That's the reason we searched long and hard before making the decision to buy Toto! I spent years telling my husband "NO! I will never get so attached to another one as long as I live!!" Moral to story ... NEVER say NEVER!!!
