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TDLR at bottom

My(37F) dad's (60M) dog died in September 2023 due to inoperable cancer at 13. The vet said he would likely not make it through surgery and Bo was suffering (losing weight, could hardly walk, used to love his rides but couldn't get in the car any longer, stairs were impossible etc.) so I went with my dad to put him down.

My dad had been distraught since (obviously), however, wanted to get another dog ASAP. I suggested he wait a little bit bc he was going to spend his winter in Florida (Jan. 1 to April 1). My dad and I are extremely close. He called me from Florida mid March and was considering adopting a dog that looked a lot like BO down in FL. And driving back early. I convinced him that wasn't a good idea. The ride is 24hrs from home and he doesn't know how the dog will do in the car and if he wants a dog that badly, he can adopt one from home (Mass.).

He got home and spent so much time looking for dogs to adopt. He wanted one that looked just like Bo. It wasn't working out fast enough for him (dad is VERY impatient) and I told him the right dog will come along. He didn't didn't want a puppy. He wanted a dog that was between 1-3 yrs old. Puppies are a pain as any dog owner would know. When we got BO he was a puppy and my dad literally called the breeder back and told them he can't handle him and they can have him back for free after paying several thousand for the dog and fixing him and all the stuff that comes with having a puppy. After his puppy training school he was the goodest boy and my dad's best friend.

Dad was getting antsy and went on Craigslist. He found an ad that was posted from New Jersey all the way up to New Hampshire for puppies. They did look very much like Bo. The price seemed to good to be true and I told my dad as such and he insisted it was the real deal. He talked to the guy selling (Dad had seen the ad in Massachusetts) and the guy said he was actually in New Jersey and that is why he had the "will deliver for a fee" message at the bottom of the ad. He only had one female left (dad wanted a male, again 1-3 yrs old) and my dad jumped on it. The guy wanted several hundred dollars to deliver from NJ (I believe it was an extra $300 but I could be wrong). The guy said he could deliver the dog the next day bc he just happened to have the day off work. My father kept on asking for records of shots. My guy kept on saying he will send them and didn't. I told my father that he really should NOT have the seller bring the dog w/o first seeing papers. My father insisted he would get them. So the next day the seller texted my dad that he was on the way (still without seeing papers/shots) and seller acted like it slipped his mind. My father, who becomes too trusting when he wants something, figured everything would be fine. I went over his house before the dog arrived to help out a bit and I was going to spend the first night. The dog arrived and she was dead asleep, not typical all over the place puppy, but puppies do sleep a lot as well. He handed my dad eye drops and said that the dog pooped in the car and he had to take her to a fast food bathroom and clean her up and he got soap in her eye and he found the nearest pet store and stopped for eye drops. I did notice she had a lot of discharge in both of her eyes. Looking back, the seller parked like 4 houses down after we had told him he could pull in our driveway. My dad mentioned the shot records and he said he would send them from his phone when he got back to his car. My dad should have said that he would like to receive them before exchanging any payment, but he was so preoccupied with how adorable little Lola was. Dad exchanges payment and seller walks down the street. I made sure I took Lola out every couple hours and she was great with pooping and peeing outside. But I noticed she was always shaking. The last puppy I had experience with was Bo and he definitely didn't do that. I figured maybe she was cold. It was the end of April and New England weather is bipolar and this year it didn't get hot enough to not wear a light jacket until the begining of June and the nights were still really cold. I would take her back in and she would go right back to her crate (on her own) and go back to sleep. At about 1am she woke up scream crying. I took her outside and she was shaking terribly. The times before I would put her on a leash and she would walk out and this time I had to carry her bc she was so wobbly. I told my father something was very wrong. I wrapped her in a blanket and held her and she started seizing. I told my dad she was having a seizure and he didn't see the first one so he was hesitant to believe me. Then not 3 minutes later , she started seizing again and my dad saw that one. We called the 24hr emergency vet and took her right in. I had her in my lap in the car and she kept having seizure after seizure. The vet was only about 10-15 minutes away and I estimate she took 4 or 5 seizures just on the car ride. They brought us right in and after about 10 minutes the vet administered seizure medication. It slowed them but didn't stop them. When we got there she was having back to back seizures. I was distraught. The vet told us it was likely distemper due to not being vaccinated. That is why she had all the eye discharge when I first saw her. The vet also suggested she seemed okay but very sleepy for the 9 hrs we had her at my dad's house was bc the seller drugged her for the sale and likely had been drugging her. His though was an opiate or a benzo. Probably a benzo bc she wasn't having seizures until she woke up screaming and benzos will stop seizures (alcoholics are detoxed with benzos bc they are prone to seizures when coming off of alcohol). He suggested they may have used both and he could run a pannel if we wanted but didn't have to make that decision on the spot. He told us every seizure heats up the brain and causes some sort of damage to the brain and if she has been having seizures that often since she was supposed to have had her distemper vaccine, she could have lots of cognitive issues. Our option was to leave her there and wait for the neurologist to come in (which was four times a week) and in the meantime they would keep her comfortable but again, they didn't know how much damage had already been done. And where she was so small, it was likely she was affected pretty severely. The vet said she looked like she may have been the runt of the litter bc of how tiny she was. She was 13 weeks old and weighed 4lbs. She was teeny. The vet told us he couldn't tell us what to do but the vet tech pulled us aside and told us if it were her puppy, she would put her down. She was suffering and would likely be effected her whole life, however long that may be. We chose to put her down. My dad couldn't be in the room (he is a big teddy bear and he was in a chair in tears with everything he was hearing and every seizure she had). I swaddled her like a baby and sang to her until the doctor came in. He let me hold her while administering the medication and she went to sleep in my arms. I would like to think we gave her the most loving 12ish hours of her life and at least she knew what love felt like.

I went home and looked for the ad and it was gone. I wanted to make posts in every state he did asking if anyone else got a puppy from him and if they had the same experience. My dad called the number the next morning and we found out he was using a burner number. He parked down the street instead of in our driveway so our doorbell cam wouldn't catch his plate. I went to a couple houses he could have been parked in front of to ask if they had cameras and they didn't. I picked up the eye drops and more than half the bottle was gone, he was most likely using it before and maybe on the other puppies too. E-mails were sent but I assume he blocked my dad. There was nothing we could do. My father paid him in cash. It was very very traumatic and I still think of Lola often.

Tdlr: Dad got a puppy off craigslist that sounded too good to be true. Seller kept on conveniently forgetting to send shot records. Have puppy at home for about 8hrs and she wakes up screaming and seizing at 1am. Went to ER vet where we learned she had distemper from not being vaccinated and seller likely drugged her so she would appear okay for a while so he could get out of dodge. Had to put the dog down less than 12hrs after my father paid the breeder. Breeder was using a burner number, parked down the street so our doorbell cam couldn't catch his plate (dad told him he could park in the driveway). E-mails went unanswered (most likely blocked) and ad was taken down bc my father got the last puppy who was the runt of the liter.