I adopted a Puggle puppy from Thyme and Sage Ranch on May 3rd, 2008. I contacted Jennifer (the owner) in mid-April about the litter I had found on her website. At that time she told me that there were 2 females left and that one would be held for me. I had to fill out an adoption form and send $125 to her in the mail. A few days after I sent that out I contacted her again to make sure that she received the form and first payment. She said that she did and one of the puppies would be waiting for me at 10:00 May 3rd. I then asked her if my mom and I could come up that weekend to see her facilities and other animals she had available for adoption. Jennifer told me that the majority of her animals are kept in foster care and that it would be a waste of trip but that she would be happy to give us a tour when we came to pick up the puppy. I did not talk to Jennifer anymore until the Saturday we went to pick up the puppy.
We arrived at 10 to get my puppy. We parked by her outdoor facilities and got out of the car and headed toward them. Jennifer came rushing out of her house and lead us to her house instead. While we were heading in she told us about how she got these puppies from an Amish puppy mill and that she buys them out and shuts them down. She had the puppies in her bathroom. They were all scared and hiding. They eventually came out and thats when we noticed how severely bloated they were and that there were scabs covering their bodies. I have worked in a vet clinic environment for almost 3 years so I knew right away that those two things were NOT normal on a puppy. Jennifer told us that the foster mom of the puppies believed that the puppies had the scabs from playing with each other. Jennifer however told us that she was wrong and that she contacted her vet and he said it might be puppy mites and to treat it with Frontline and they will be fine. After I picked out my puppy Jennifer lead us out to the kitchen. She unwrapped a puppy pack and took out a vaccine sheet. There she wrote down two dates and then reached into a container and pulled out 2 vaccine viles and pealed the stickers off and placed it on the sheet. She also wrote down 2 dates for wormings as well. I signed a spay contract and paid Jennifer the remainder of the adoption fee. I then asked her to see the facilities like she had promised me weeks before. She said no and told us there is a virus going around in Milwaukee and she is worried that her shelter may get infected so its not open to the general public. By this time I had got my puppy and was just ready to take her home.
That same night Calli (my puppy) began to have diarrhea. She also began to pass live worms that were 3 to 4 inches long. I took her to the vet right away on Monday to get her checked out. I was given awful news. Calli not only had worms but she had the worst case of round worms that the vet had ever seen. She said that because of the amount and length of the worms she was probably never wormed. She also looked at Calli's skin and decided in order to treat her we would have to do a skin scrap. A skin scrap is when they take a razor and scrap the animals skin until it bleeds, that way they know they got a good sample. They did several skin scraps all over her body. I felt so bad for her as she cried and whined with every scrap. When the results came back the news got even worse. She had a staph infection on her forehead and a bacteria infection on her body. They did not see any mites on the slides but they wanted to treat for those as well. They did a ringworm culture on her that I had to wait 10 days before I found out the results. By the end of my visit Calli got an injection for mites, 2 antibiotics for her skin problems, worming medication, Frontline and worst of all she had to be quarantined for 10 days until the ringworm culture came back. I had quite the vet bill I now had to pay for. I contacted Jennifer right away to warn her about all the things wrong with Calli and that the other puppies probably had the same problem so she should contact all the people to let them know. She told me that she would but that my vet was wrong and just made all that up because they didn't know what was really going on. I asked Jennifer if I could get half of my adoption fee back or something to help with the vet bills and she told me no she could not do that. I was very frustrated and unhappy with the whole experience but in the end I got the most beautiful dog that I love so much. Calli was on treatment for almost a month and lost most of her hair from the infections. It all grew back and she is a very happy and healthy dog.
I CAN NOT PUT INTO WORDS WHAT AN AWFUL AND HEARTLESS PERSON JENNIFER IS. SHE IS JUST IN THIS FOR THE MONEY AND DOESN'T CARE ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE. DO NOT ADOPT FROM HER AND HOPEFULLY SHE WILL BE SHUT DOWN SOON FROM EVERYTHING SHE IS DOING!