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Originally Posted by PCMom First let me say this is all my opinion.
I've had both ends of the petstore thing. My first Yorkie, Charlie, came from a petstore. He was healthy and just the sweetest little guy you would ever want to meet. After almost 9 years my baby died. Instead of doing what I should have: RESEARCH!!! I went back to the same petstore and saw Pepper. OMG what a scruffy little guy...but what a personality! I fell in love! I paid my $1600 dollars and took him home. But that night we found out that all was not right with my guy. He woke up from his nap with very wobbly legs...seemed almost drunk, couldn't stand up right..he was also coughing badly. Took him to the vet the next day. And after a whole lot of tests and heartache...we found out he had "something neurological" that was what the vet said. After fighting with the petstore for weeks they finally took him back and gave us our money back. But we couldn't forget our Pepper and even though we knew his life was going to be shorter we bought him back. More tests to elimentate various illnesses and we finally had a name: Cerebellar Abiotrophey. An illness that is crippling. It attacks his nervous system so he can't walk, stand, eat, drink, play without help. I have to hold him up sometimes just so he can pee. The vet said we would be lucky to have him make it to his first birthday...Pepper will be 3 in february. I have watched him go from having these "dingy" spells every few days to being like this 80% of the time. He has periods now when he doesn't know what is happening to him and it scares him so badly that all I can do is hold him so he knows he is not alone...and it breaks my heart. Pepper's time is coming to an end because he goes through days when he can't eat. He vomits everyday. He doesn't want to play much anymore when that's all he wanted to do before. I am going to have to have him put to sleep because his life is becoming a burden to him instead of a joy. Pepper arrived at a petstore through the biggest broker in the country. When we took him back to the store the broker replaced the "defective" puppy with a new yorkie. After 2 years of searching I finally found his "breeder" I had to get really nasty for her to agree not to breed his parents anymore...and then it was only Peppers mom she agreed to retire. This illness is genetic...every one of his siblings probably have it. It breaks my heart to know that because I bought him more puppys are doomed to this illness. Because I bought from a petstore more puppies ended up in that hell! Yes, I would love to save them all but I found out too late that I am responsible for puppymills because I helped keep them in business. You are right that there may be some petstores who don't buy from brokers or puppymills but almost all of them do and since that is true how can you take the chance that the store you are buying from is one of the rare ones who don't deal with puppymills or brokers? My Pepper's life is hell. My heart breaks everyday watching him struggle just to go pee or drink water. I get up everyday wondering if this is the day that I will have to make that decision to end his life. Please for Pepper's sake don't buy from petstores. If we stop buying live animals from them...they will stop selling them! Anyway, that's Pepper's story. I love him wholeheartedly and he and I will keep fighting for time. |
I'm so sorry about Pepper. This story makes me cry just thinking about it
Please give Pepper some kisses for me.