Everyone who knows me

knows I am a very honest, open, and truthful person.

It is a dominant trait in my personality!

After recently loosing my dog Luna CHUG who kept Duke, Pono and I company for 12 years,

Pono became lifeless and miserable!

He tried looking for Luna CHUG for two weeks,

moaning day and night and doing unusual things.

After getting him into a new daily routine,

and spending more time with him,

he is finally getting used to his smaller pack.

But Duke and I knew it was only a matter of time

before we perused the idea of getting a new puppy.

So we started looking at the local pet shop

bulletin boards and saw a few potentials.

But what breed do we go with?

We love our bully breeds and naturally another American Pitbull was my first choice.

I love that breed!

Then we searched online at mainland kennels, it was so nice to see so many great dogs!

But as I searched for Hawai’i Quarantine Laws,

it was exhausting and discouraging to see how many

hoops and barrels

you have to go through just to get your dog here.

Puppy would be 6 - 8 months already by the time he gets all the shots and paperwork.

I have a new appreciation for people who bring their dog

with them from the mainland now for sure!

I often walk Pono with our neighbors beautiful 2 year old female Mastiff named Sophie,

who is came from Australia.

I guess since Australia doesn’t have rabies there,

so shipping is faster from Australia…but probably expensive too!

Sophie and Pono get along really well.

So then we searched locally in Hawai’i

to see what was available.

We tried Craig’s List and there isn’t much available

right now.

Patience!

We kept our breed options open to see what was out there

and Duke mentioned looking for an American Bulldog.

But on Craig’s List, what we did see

did not look like pure breeds

and for a $1000 dollars a pup, you have to be picky!

The funny thing is I didn’t know much about that breed,

except that my brother in Washington State

had a beautiful male

American Bulldog named Gunner.

I got to meet him when I went to visit him for his wedding a few years back.

But now that I have gotten used to looking at this  breed standard…

Johnson Vs. Scott, etc.,

I noticed that a local couple who

always walk their dog in Makawao past the gallery

have a beautiful pure white male American Bulldog.

I couldn’t tell what kind of dog he was before,

but now I know!

Then we thought about English Bulldogs

and I would love a dog like that…soooo cute!

So we searched online and found a breeder on Oahu in Honolulu who had puppies ready to go.

So lalala I proceed by sending a message of interest to them and poof I got a response the next day!

It looked too good to be true.

Professional photos of each puppy with their names and info.

They offered free shipment and delivery including the crate, papers, health certificates, galore.

The email address looked legit and so did the signed message:

“Kind Regards, Virginia & Robert Davies”

I mean I would have never guessed this was a FRAUD.

Well, later Duke and I looked at the email on our iMac computer

and dragged the photos into iPhoto to see them larger, & to enhance them, etc.

We were seriously about to pick one of the 6 puppies available.

Then I noticed on the information for the photo,

that the date for 4 of them was 11/9/09 and only two had 6/22/10.

HMMM.  WHY & How could that be?  Seriously?

We thought about it again, and again,

and felt very discouraged by this discrepancy!

So I was nice enough to write back

saying we were no longer interested because these are not accurate photos!

Stupid Global Free Classified Ad Listing!

They say that only a small number of adds are fraudulent, well this was for sure!

Lesson learned:

Deal locally and see the item in person, deals involving shipping are usually a scam,

and follow your instincts:

If something seems too good to be true, it is!

But we have continued to search on

other more reputable websites like

Ebay Classifieds

and we actually found some much more

promising results.

Even though we would love a puppy soon,

I know that it will take some time to make sure we get the right dog.

I am praying to the puppy stork angels to send the

right dog to us to be with us for this stage in our life.

The funny thing is FRAUD

is happening every moment all around us.

You hear about it all the time,

but until it happens to you do you realize the extent and the cleverness of fraudulence.

So just be aware and don’t be fooled by FRAUD!

I heard on National Public Radio the other day driving home from work

that there is an investigation into FRAUD where prisoners took advantage of the

First Time Home Buyers Tax Credit!

WOW!

$9 Millions dollars in fraudulent claims.

Sophisticated Criminal Enterprise!

Here is the link to the story:  Click Here

The Hawaiian Word Of The Day Is: ‘apuka

(with kahako over the first a so hold it out a little)

(pronounced aaah-pooh-kah)

OR

To swindle, cheat, defraud, forgery, embezzlement