Sheair's Blackeyed Suzie

A sad story...

Suzie came to live with us in fall of 2002, having just turned two years old. We had high hopes for her, and bought her with the intention of showing her and raising puppies from her to help further our kennel goals. Soon after having purchased the dog, we were sent an anonymous warning which stated that Suzie had a littermate with cataracts. We immediately asked Suzie's seller, Cindy Yocum Dobai whether or not this were true...and she blatantly denied these allegations. So we gave Cindy the benefit of the doubt, and completed the purchase. Had she admitted to the littermates having cataracts, we would not have purchased the dog. I had made clear to Cindy that I would not be interested in a dog with very close relatives which were afflicted. Once she arrived here in California, she visited our regular ophthalmologist and had a perfectly normal eye exam in January 2003 (CERF SH-7020/2003--31). In that year we entered Suzie in many shows, and kept in close contact with Cindy. In the summer of 2003 we sent Suzie out of state to be bred to a nice Champion dog that suited her. Shortly after the puppies were born, we noticed that Suzie had a cloudiness in one eye. We contacted Cindy, and told her of the situation. At that time it was agreed that should Suzie turn out to be diagnosed with an eye abnormality we would place her in a pet home. The following week Suzie was seen by a well known canine ophthalmologist, and diagnosed with corneal dystrophy.

This is where the story gets really sad.

At this point we immediately contacted Cindy, and sent her copies of the new diagnosis. From that point on she dropped completely out of touch. Through investigation on my part, I discovered that Suzie did in fact have not one but TWO littermates with juvenile cataracts, and that Cindy was well aware at the time we purchased the dog. Cindy made an arrangement with another breeder to offer us a possible replacement for Suzie- but the mother of that puppy would be one of Suzie's other littermates without cataracts. So our answer was that we are not interested in keeping a puppy with such background, and would not want to sell such a puppy to one of our clients (for fear of having to later replace it ourselves!) So, could they go ahead and sell the puppy and refund our money?

This was refused. Cindy Yocum Dobai replied with this email message:

"I am not going to give you any money back, since you bred Suzie, if you had not bred her that would have been a different story, and since you turned down a replacement that settles everything. I have met my obligation. Your are getting quite a bit of money from the puppies that you will sell that should compensate you very well, Unless you want to send Suzie and the puppies here, than I will give you your money back if she is not spayed. "

So clearly our sales contract, which offers me compensation in the case of a dog "flunking" an eye exam is not worth the paper it's written on.
Clearly integrity and honesty are a rare commodity in the world today.
Clearly this person seeks to get away with fraud, misconduct and breach of contract.

Just as clearly, we are not about to let that happen.

More to come.....

** Update**

Much time has passed, and Cindy has made no effort to resolve this situation. It has been announced on Showsibe and also on her kennel website that she has had numerous new litters over the years (which she never mentioned to me). As the dogs are unrelated to this situation with Suzie, we wrote her asking that one be sent to us as compensation. She responded back that she would not send us a puppy now "since you turned down the other one". I have accepted the fact that I will never see compensation for this situation. I have also been asked why I keep this page up, and told that I should just let it go. I refuse to do so. I believe that it is absolutely disgusting how some breeders seek to take advantage of other people just for the sake of a few dollars. Since this page has been available for others to find, I have been contacted by several other people who were also ripped off by Cindy. Every situation is different, but the common factor is always that she took money for something and then didn't deliver on her promises.

I am happy to say that Suzie is in a wonderful home, where she is loved and well taken care of. She was of course spayed and will not produce any more puppies that could pass on her hereditary defects to another generation. I at least have the comfort of knowing that she wasn't returned to Cindy to be bred again in spite of her issues.