Complaint Review: AJ's Best Friends

I want to inform you about a non-profit organization. On March 4, 2004, she posed as a private adopter on a website I had posted him up on. They have to fill out an application before so you can contact them. She stated mostly false information like her name, what the kitten was for (her only and she had one other cat she rescued at her house). She made it sound like this cat was going to be in the best home with her. She had a nice house for him to roam around in, a kitty condo and drinking fountain in every room, etc. She sounded the best. Well, as it turns out, she is the agent of AJ's best friends. She is an animal rescue, and has a lot more cats than what she told me. Also, she didn't get him for herself, she got him to place him in her program.

I saw him on petfinder.com as a cat named Cobra. Because of the rarity in his spots, it was believed that this was the same cat. She didn't deny that it was him that I saw on petfinder either, nor anything else she had done. He is also microchipped, so if he gets scanned, he will be in my name. So when I found out about this 5 weeks later, I contacted her because the contact info she gave me was no longer working(work and email not working because she left her job). So someone else gave me her information and email address. I contacted her, and she wouldn't answer my questions like did you rename him, or are you keeping him for yourself.

She would answer my emails, but not answer my questions. She also told me he had a cold. He caught an upper respitory infection in her care. OthI was told that she is not very reputable and is very rude. I was told she was very greedy and in it for money. I was also told of another situation that she had done this to someone else with another cat.

My friend had an encounter with her also, (she had been pre-approved by the phone, and then she went there to pick up her two kittens which were supposed to be on reserve for her, but when they got there, she told her that they were reserved for someone else.). They also treated her very poorly. So after this, I started asking for my cat back. Originally she said yes, but would not respond to my emails for a few days so I decided to call her to see what was going on.

I asked her how he was, and when I could get him back and who's foster home he was in with his cold. She wouldn't tell me the name of the person who had him. She was also very rude on the phone and hung up on me. So I decided maybe it was time to tell her a little bit about what I knew about her by email. She gave me a 7 question list in which I needed to fill out by 10:35pm or else she wouldn't give me the kitty.

It was basically questions to protect her and her organization, and who had told me the things I heard. She wanted me to never speak of her organization again. I wouldn't fill it out because it was unreasonable in my opinion. She sent me another email. She also threatened to take me to court because I told her I was going to make complaints to different places.

She also said that she would give him back to me for $500 in an email before she realized what was going on. In my opinion, she took him to make a profit off of him. Nothing else make's sense. He was a beautiful Siamese kitten who had all the works done to him already. I paid for his shots, etc under the consideration that he would go to a good home by me. He was also neutered, was rabies vaccinated, and had a microchip. She paid me $70 which covered his adoption fee that I paid.

Based on the $500 she stated in one of the emails for him, and the 7 question email on things I must answer and give to her before 10:35pm on Sunday, April 25, before discussing further about the kitty, in my opinion, this is black mail and also ransom. And also charging more for him than what she had paid me seemed a little fishy.
I was told that these type of things by this group is typical.

Christy
Mesa, Arizona
U.S.A.