Little Bella loves to play. She is a lively peekapoo, full of energy, but when Robert Kusserow first brought little Bella home, he says she barely moved.
[WEB EXTRA: Info to know before buying your pet | POLL: Where did you get your pet? ]
Her "puppy for sale" ad captured Robert's heart, so he called the breeder.
"The breeder said she had recently been robbed by someone that had come to look at a dog so she wouldn't let people go to her house," Robert said.
So Robert agreed to meet the breeder, Judith, in the parking lot of a Winn Dixie in Oviedo.
He says Bella seemed healthy, so he bought her on the spot. An expert Local 6 spoke to says if you're buying a dog, not only do you want to make sure they look healthy but are also active.
"If your noticing anything like the dog is lethargic the eyes are runny the nose is running," Diane Gagliano, of Seminole County Animal Services, said. "If you have any red flags going up go with your gut. There might be something going on."
Within 48 hours of bringing Bella home and a trip to the vet, Robert discovered his puppy was not well.
"They did testing on Bella. They came back and she said she had the worst case of hook worm she had ever seen in a puppy, so we immediately knew she was very sick," Robert said.
According to a vet report from Winder Garden Animal Hospital, Bella had no appetite, was lethargic and at one point had to receive a blood transfusion. She was hospitalized for 10 days.
But Robert couldn't utilize Florida's Pet Lemon Law to recoup some of the vet fees. That's because according to the vet, the health certificate given to Robert by the breeder is a fake.
According to Florida Department of Agriculture's pet law, a valid certificate of veterinary inspection must be given to the owner showing all the vaccines administered by veterinarian licensed by the state.
Bella didn't have that.
Gagliano says the Certificate of Veterinary Inspection is vital to your pet's health.
"Without that paper stating what has been done to the animal you can't take that animal to your vet and get what the animal needs," she said. "You don't want to over- vaccinate a dog if they have already had the proper vaccines or under-vaccinate and not give it what it needs."
Bella's road to recovery was long and expensive, with vet bills over a thousand dollars.
Robert says he called Judith a number of times before finally speaking to her.
"Her response was very defensive, 'There is nothing wrong with the dog. She was fine when I gave it to you,'" he said.
Local 6 called Judith a number of times and left a message with a woman who said she was her mother, but Judith never returned Local 6's calls.
Local 6 also did some digging and found Seminole County Animal Services inspected Judith's dogs in September.
Their report says all 10 dogs looked healthy, but she was issued a written warning for no proof of rabies vaccinations and pet licenses. She has since complied.
Robert said he wishes he had done his due diligence. Although he would never give Bella up, if he had the proper paperwork it would have been nice to recoup some of the money he spent.