Kim Balas and mistibleu yorkies - beware!!!

[MarkFromSea]

Originally Posted by Kimby44

Hello, I am Kim Balas, the owner of Mistibleu Yorkies and the breeder that is being discussed in this thread. You can imagine my disappointment when I received news of this thread from a friend of mine. Before I address the specific issues from Kerryn915 I would like to give a little background on myself.
I have been breeding and showing Yorkshire Terriers according to AKC standards for over 15 years now. All my dogs are sold after receiving all of their shots/wormings including the rabies vaccine. They are also neutered/spayed before they leave for their forever home. I prefer to spay/neuter my dogs because it requires a vet with experience in neutering/spaying these small 2 to 3 pound dogs.
Although it was not required by NYS law at the time Kerryn915 adopted Frankie I provided her and as well as every new owner with a health certificate from my veterinarian. My veterinarian would not put his reputation in jeopardy by intentionally issuing a health certificate on a dog/puppy with health issues. The veterinarian spends time with each puppy/dog checking for any structural issues and making sure they don’t have worms, fleas, ear, eyes, nose, mouth or issues. I provide this health certificate and a rabies certificate as well as a shot record on each and every puppy/dog this is for the benefit of new owners and the pet they have adopted as it helps to prevent duplication of treatments.
All my dogs are registered with AKC. My dogs/puppies are raised with me in my home, underfoot. My Home is inspected every two years by AKC as is required. I also receive a copy for my records. In addition, I am required by AKC to keep full written records on my dogs and their litters. All of my records are carefully checked during the AKC inspection. If you were truly told by your veterinarian that your dog was two years old when it was actually only ten months old, perhaps you might want to consider looking for another veterinarian?
Regarding the other statements made by Kerryn915:
All of my puppies/dogs have a bath the same day they go to their new homes without exception. I am sure it was no different for Frankie before Kerryn915 took him home. This being said, I can not see how he could have been dirty. Kerryn915 must have also seen Frankie walking on the floor using all four of his legs without limping or showing any signs of pain. That said if Frankie did in fact have a broken leg when she picked him up he would have been in pain and limping. Why would you accept a dog that is obviously injured? Answer- you wouldn't, furthermore, I would not have been able to get a health certificate from my veterinarian if the puppy/dog had any of the health issues that Kerryn915 has stated in her posts. I would especially like to address the un-socialized issue of which she is accusing me. Let's take a step back and think; new puppy/dog, new home and right off the bat a broken leg... If you stop and think about it what Kerryn915 has described as un-socialized is a puppy/dog in pain and afraid.
I try to ensure as best as I can that my dogs will be cared for and that the new owners are responsible enough to take care of a very small dog, which in most cases, is going to weigh less than 7 pounds. Being small puts these dogs in a special-needs category. They cannot jump up on a couch or chair nor can they jump down from a couch or a chair, or a bed for that matter. They are not the best pet for very young children as they can be dropped or hurt unintentionally. Please try to put yourself in my shoes and imagine how I felt when I received the call from Kerryn915 stating that her Frankie's leg had been broken (and was there something I wasn't telling her?) within hours of Frankie being in her possession. I was upset for my puppy/dog and was angry with myself thinking I had made a mistake in selling the dog to Kerryn915. Yorkies do not break their legs just walking around. Something had to have happened in order to have caused Frankie's leg to break. Once a Yorkie leaves my home, I am no longer in charge of the puppy/dog. At the point that Kerryn915 took possession she became the new owner, and the responsible protector of this puppy/dog. Again, as I was not there I can’t say what series of events took place. I did receive one call from Kerryn915 (only one) regarding Frankie's leg. At that time she was very upset and understandably so. She asked for my advice regarding what she should do stating that money was a issue. At that time I said as a last resort casting was a possible option if she could not afford the surgery. As Frankie was in her care when the leg was broken, I anticipated hearing updates from her and I received none, nor do I recall receiving an x-ray of Frankie's leg. Again, I am not sure how this would change how this would change anything regarding Frankie as his leg was broken after she had taken possession of him. If his leg had been broken as a result of a pre-existing condition as she has suggested I was never provided with any evidence of this. My vet would not have issued a health certificate if he had identified any pre-existing conditions.
In regards Kerryn915 comment on Frankie eating stool, if you do a internet search on “reasons for dogs eating stool”, you will find that there are many suspected reasons for this behavior. I was horrified when I saw this for the first time so I went directly to the vet and he felt that I was feeding a food with too much protein in it and I needed to get a less protein food. I did this and it corrected itself to a degree, but keeping the poop picked up right away was a must and I had to make sure to do this. My dogs are all free fed and they always have food in their bowls.
I have noted that Kerryn915 has made quite a few contradictions in her statements, but it appears that her biggest complaint towards me is that she believes that I should be responsible for paying for Frankie's injury, an injury which occurred after he was in her possession.
As for my website not being up to date, I have recently moved and I had no new puppies to sell. I do not ever push my puppies/dogs out the door before they are ready, after all I helped deliver each of them and they are my responsibility when they are in my care and only I can decide when they are ready for a new home and where that new home and family will be.
If you take the time to read my site you will note that I have to know the home is right for the puppy/dog and it will be a forever home. It takes a lot of time, money and the expertise of a good vet in order for me to place a dog/puppy it is not a money making business, it is however a labor of love and a hobby with the responsibility of breeding the best Yorkshire Terrier that you can.

Well written response! Thanks for doing so. It seems rare that we hear from the breeder in these issues so..... Merry Christmas and I wish you the best in 2015!

Summary that I see: Puppy is brought to it's new home and it accidentally breaks a leg while in possession of new owner. New owner, hopes that breeder will help pay for medical bills for an accident that occurred at new owner's home. Breeder refuses to pay for medical bills for an accident that happened at the customer's home. Customer retaliates with bad reviews. Past customers/friends/breeder attempt to repair the bad reviews.

Based on what I'm reading, I think this breeder has been unfairly treated by the customer and certain members here at YT.

[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by Kerryn915

I'm glad that you had a good experience, however mine was the total opposite. My dog was extremely malnourished, dirty and had an ear infection and a pre existing leg injury which resulted in the break. This was confirmed by the vet and when I contacted Kim she said that I should just go with casting the leg and not the surgery. I even forwarded her the X-ray so she could show her vet and then never heard back! Probably bc he also disagreed with her. Both vets that I consulted said that casting would be an absolute waste of time. I was devastated! I paid $1500 for him and a reputable breeder would have wanted the best treatment for one of their dogs. In fact I've heard of breeders refunding some or all of the money paid to put towards a costly surgery bc they want the best case for their dogs. This happened the first day I had him home! I spent $3000 for the surgery and luckily he is completely healed or we would have had to amputate. She may have been a good breeder at some point but she seems more like a puppy broker to me. She has no pictures available of any adults and all the puppies she has available are over one year of age. In fact I was told mine was 10 months old and the vet said he's def closer to 2 years bc of the condition of his teeth. He had all the classic signs of being separated too soon from the mother bc he is very unsocial and terrified of everything. He is doing much better now and I'm just glad that I was able to afford the surgery bc if not he would have been surrendered to a rescue that would have been able to give him the surgery he needed to save his leg. Would a reputable breeder want that to be the fate of one of their dogs?? She has not once checked to see what happened to him or how the surgery went. Of course she was a completely helpful person before the money was in her hand sweetie! That's the bottom line of her business the money!

Certainly the injury that happened on your watch was your responsibility. I am just curious though .... do you have a statement from the vet regarding the ear infection and the "healing fracture" that was an old injury?? If so, would love to see you post it here.

[ladyjane]

I personally would not take sides here....they both have opposing stories and I don't see how anyone could decide which one is more credible.

I hope the OP follows up with some proof. That would settle the whole issue.

[ChibiLuv]

I love how every time some one has an issue with a breeder with a 'sketchy' at best history new YT people show up out of the blue to defend them. If you are new to this forum and thinking of getting a dog read this:
http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/fea...ead-first.html

And please if you have any feelings of uncertainty walk away! Buying a pup from a bad breeder only encourages that person to keep breeding. Also please check rescue, yes their are puppies and great adult yorkies needing new homes!

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by ladyjane

I personally would not take sides here....they both have opposing stories and I don't see how anyone could decide which one is more credible.

I hope the OP follows up with some proof. That would settle the whole issue.

Honestly the first thing I do when someone posts about a breeder is I go look up the breeder more then 100% pay attention to the op at first and my biggest issues was whether it was a reputable breeder or not. I don't feel the breeder is reputable but maybe the owners not either who knows it would be nice if she could show us some vet papers. I know my vets makes notes about things on the sheet we take home with us.

[megansmomma]

Originally Posted by ChibiLuv

I love how every time some one has an issue with a breeder with a 'sketchy' at best history new YT people show up out of the blue to defend them. If you are new to this forum and thinking of getting a dog read this:
http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/fea...ead-first.html

And please if you have any feelings of uncertainty walk away! Buying a pup from a bad breeder only encourages that person to keep breeding. Also please check rescue, yes their are puppies and great adult yorkies needing new homes!

Then the breeder is alerted and it goes on and on.

[sportschick]

O.K., I have defended Kim before on another thread because of, I think the same person who posted here, GARBAGE about her. I bought my first dog from Kim - my love Beanie. As some of you here know, when I first got my doggie, I almost lost my mind because, even though I read everything I could about Yorkies, I was NOT prepared for the little bundle of energy that arrived at my house. If it wasn't for Kim talking to me EVERY DAY AND NIGHT for the first month, I probably would have sent Beanie back. She spent so much time on the phone with me, talking me through everything. That being said, she WOULD have taken her back if that is what I decided. Thank God I didn't.

The reason I chose to buy from Kim, even though she was more expensive was because she spent so much time talking to me BEFORE I bought Beanie. SHE interviewed ME to make sure that I would take care of the dog. I also had to talk to a bunch of other people who bought dogs from her and THEY interviewed me. I thought that I wanted a very small Yorkie, but Kim said that because I worked during the day and would have to leave the dog home alone for awhile, she wouldn't sell me a very small dog, hence Beanie.

I was supposed to go and pick Beanie up when she was 4 months old, but I ended up moving and had all kinds of problems with my new apartment and it just wasn't safe for her to be there. Kim kept her for 3 extra months at no extra cost to me. She kept Beanie with the puppy she was going to show, THAT is how much she cared about MY dog.

Beanie is a healthy, happy, sweet, wonderful 6 lb. dog and she is absolutely gorgeous. She glistens, she is so shiny. My own vet said that she is the most beautiful Yorkie he as ever seen and that whomever I got her from must be breeding wonderful dogs.

SO, to all of you that are saying bad stuff about Kim, you are so off base and do not know what you are talking about. The person that posted the first post here is so full of it and it makes me sick to see what she has done to Kim's reputation.

And to those of you that are saying her dogs eyes have no soul, or whatever you said, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. You are judging a dog's "soul" by a picture on a website? Give me a break.

I haven't been on this site in a long time, and after reading this thread, it just reiterated why I don't even bother coming here anymore.

[megansmomma]

Originally Posted by sportschick

O.K., I have defended Kim before on another thread because of, I think the same person who posted here, GARBAGE about her. I bought my first dog from Kim - my love Beanie. As some of you here know, when I first got my doggie, I almost lost my mind because, even though I read everything I could about Yorkies, I was NOT prepared for the little bundle of energy that arrived at my house. If it wasn't for Kim talking to me EVERY DAY AND NIGHT for the first month, I probably would have sent Beanie back. She spent so much time on the phone with me, talking me through everything. That being said, she WOULD have taken her back if that is what I decided. Thank God I didn't.

The reason I chose to buy from Kim, even though she was more expensive was because she spent so much time talking to me BEFORE I bought Beanie. SHE interviewed ME to make sure that I would take care of the dog. I also had to talk to a bunch of other people who bought dogs from her and THEY interviewed me. I thought that I wanted a very small Yorkie, but Kim said that because I worked during the day and would have to leave the dog home alone for awhile, she wouldn't sell me a very small dog, hence Beanie.

I was supposed to go and pick Beanie up when she was 4 months old, but I ended up moving and had all kinds of problems with my new apartment and it just wasn't safe for her to be there. Kim kept her for 3 extra months at no extra cost to me. She kept Beanie with the puppy she was going to show, THAT is how much she cared about MY dog.

Beanie is a healthy, happy, sweet, wonderful 6 lb. dog and she is absolutely gorgeous. She glistens, she is so shiny. My own vet said that she is the most beautiful Yorkie he as ever seen and that whomever I got her from must be breeding wonderful dogs.

SO, to all of you that are saying bad stuff about Kim, you are so off base and do not know what you are talking about. The person that posted the first post here is so full of it and it makes me sick to see what she has done to Kim's reputation.

And to those of you that are saying her dogs eyes have no soul, or whatever you said, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. You are judging a dog's "soul" by a picture on a website? Give me a break.

I haven't been on this site in a long time, and after reading this thread, it just reiterated why I don't even bother coming here anymore.

What exactly made you come to YT today 3 months after the last post on this thread to comment the same things I've seen you say before. If it's just so horrible here on YT why come back at all? Just to tell us we are horrible?

[sportschick]

Originally Posted by megansmomma

What exactly made you come to YT today 3 months after the last post on this thread to comment the same things I've seen you say before. If it's just so horrible here on YT why come back at all? Just to tell us we are horrible?

Because I like to periodically check Kim's website to see her dogs, and when I do that I just type in Kim Balas Yorkies and lo and behold, up popped Yorkietalk with the post about her. So I read through the thread because it aggravates the CRAP out of me when I see stuff posted by people who are a) lying about her dogs because they want HER to pay for something that happened to the dog while they owned it and b) people who know nothing about her, making judgments about her and feeding off of the posts.

So, I felt the need to defend her here. And that is why I came back and posted.

I have gotten enough sanctimonious grief from people here because of some of my own posts and that is the reason I don't bother anymore. And I am not the only one who thinks that about this site because I have gotten NUMEROUS private e-mails from people who have said the same thing.

[megansmomma]

Originally Posted by sportschick

Because I like to periodically check Kim's website to see her dogs, and when I do that I just type in Kim Balas Yorkies and lo and behold, up popped Yorkietalk with the post about her. So I read through the thread because it aggravates the CRAP out of me when I see stuff posted by people who are a) lying about her dogs because they want HER to pay for something that happened to the dog while they owned it and b) people who know nothing about her, making judgments about her and feeding off of the posts.

So, I felt the need to defend her here. And that is why I came back and posted.

I have gotten enough sanctimonious grief from people here because of some of my own posts and that is the reason I don't bother anymore. And I am not the only one who thinks that about this site because I have gotten NUMEROUS private e-mails from people who have said the same thing.

It always cracks me up when I see the above being said about YT. This forum is mild compared to so many others. The reason that YorkieTalk pops up in a Google search is the number of posts to this forum. Here are the current statistics.

Members: 138,537
Threads: 277,480
Posts: 4,521,547
Total Thread Views: 208,023,173

[maxdog]

wow..

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by sportschick

Because I like to periodically check Kim's website to see her dogs, and when I do that I just type in Kim Balas Yorkies and lo and behold, up popped Yorkietalk with the post about her. So I read through the thread because it aggravates the CRAP out of me when I see stuff posted by people who are a) lying about her dogs because they want HER to pay for something that happened to the dog while they owned it and b) people who know nothing about her, making judgments about her and feeding off of the posts.

So, I felt the need to defend her here. And that is why I came back and posted.

I have gotten enough sanctimonious grief from people here because of some of my own posts and that is the reason I don't bother anymore. And I am not the only one who thinks that about this site because I have gotten NUMEROUS private e-mails from people who have said the same thing.

It aggravates me when people say they get numerous pms about how bad yt is. Then why be here? Obviously there is something keeping you here. Why not be open with it so that those things can be worked on. I guess because there wouldn't be as much drama. I could say anything I wanted on yt and it not be reality like maybe the pms aren't real. Who knows. A message board is filled with lots and lots of people's opinions and not everyone is going to agree with others opinions.

[magicgenie]

Originally Posted by sportschick

O.K., I have defended Kim before on another thread because of, I think the same person who posted here, GARBAGE about her. I bought my first dog from Kim - my love Beanie. As some of you here know, when I first got my doggie, I almost lost my mind because, even though I read everything I could about Yorkies, I was NOT prepared for the little bundle of energy that arrived at my house. If it wasn't for Kim talking to me EVERY DAY AND NIGHT for the first month, I probably would have sent Beanie back. She spent so much time on the phone with me, talking me through everything. That being said, she WOULD have taken her back if that is what I decided. Thank God I didn't.

The reason I chose to buy from Kim, even though she was more expensive was because she spent so much time talking to me BEFORE I bought Beanie. SHE interviewed ME to make sure that I would take care of the dog. I also had to talk to a bunch of other people who bought dogs from her and THEY interviewed me. I thought that I wanted a very small Yorkie, but Kim said that because I worked during the day and would have to leave the dog home alone for awhile, she wouldn't sell me a very small dog, hence Beanie.

I was supposed to go and pick Beanie up when she was 4 months old, but I ended up moving and had all kinds of problems with my new apartment and it just wasn't safe for her to be there. Kim kept her for 3 extra months at no extra cost to me. She kept Beanie with the puppy she was going to show, THAT is how much she cared about MY dog.

Beanie is a healthy, happy, sweet, wonderful 6 lb. dog and she is absolutely gorgeous. She glistens, she is so shiny. My own vet said that she is the most beautiful Yorkie he as ever seen and that whomever I got her from must be breeding wonderful dogs.

SO, to all of you that are saying bad stuff about Kim, you are so off base and do not know what you are talking about. The person that posted the first post here is so full of it and it makes me sick to see what she has done to Kim's reputation.

And to those of you that are saying her dogs eyes have no soul, or whatever you said, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. You are judging a dog's "soul" by a picture on a website? Give me a break.

I haven't been on this site in a long time, and after reading this thread, it just reiterated why I don't even bother coming here anymore.

I don't know Kim but I think I defended her on another thread related to this problem, so tired of people wanting to hold the breeder responsible for everything. I see you're in New England. Look around and see how hard it is to find a decent Yorkie here. The same applies to many parts of the country now. Quality breeding is expensive and stressful and just not worth the exposure to abuse, many good breeders have given up. I'm seriously cutting back in order to be even more exclusive about who can get one of my puppies.

[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by magicgenie

I don't know Kim but I think I defended her on another thread related to this problem, so tired of people wanting to hold the breeder responsible for everything. I see you're in New England. Look around and see how hard it is to find a decent Yorkie here. The same applies to many parts of the country now. Quality breeding is expensive and stressful and just not worth the exposure to abuse, many good breeders have given up. I'm seriously cutting back in order to be even more exclusive about who can get one of my puppies.

I wish all breeders would do that. Placement without doing vet checks, reference checks and home visits is a huge part of the problem. That goes for breeders and also many rescue groups. It takes time and money to properly place a pup in a responsible home.

[magicgenie]

Originally Posted by ladyjane

I wish all breeders would do that. Placement without doing vet checks, reference checks and home visits is a huge part of the problem. That goes for breeders and also many rescue groups. It takes time and money to properly place a pup in a responsible home.

I totally agree!