A Suffolk woman is sharing her story as a cautionary tale for others after the puppy she thought she was getting for her kids for Christmas never came.

"Without money, my children did not get their Christmas gift and it's heartbreaking, it's been traumatizing, honestly, you know I don't know where to go from here," said Rachelle Johnson.

Johnson says in an effort to make her children's longtime Christmas wish of a puppy come true, she went on Facebook and found a woman she thought was a breeder.

"We've had probably hundreds of conversations over a month's time. She did FaceTime me, I saw her, I saw the puppies, I sent her a deposit and then she didn't ask for anything else," said Johnson.

The North Babylon woman says what came next was a lot of excuses and no puppy.

"Two days before Christmas, I sent her the rest of the money. I was supposed to pick up the puppy on Christmas Eve," Johnson said. "She said one of the puppies had developed a fever. She had told me her oldest dog was at the emergency vet and I couldn't come that day. The next day, she had called me and said she was in the hospital."

Johnson says the woman eventually said it wasn't the right time to give her the puppy, so Johnson says she asked for her money back.

"I'm panicking, because you know I have three small children...I make enough money, but I don't make a lot of money...I worked really hard to save that," she said.

Johnson says she has repeatedly reached out to the woman and has had no response and none of her money back.

News 12 called as well to hear the woman's side of what happened, but did not get a response.

"I shouldn't have sent the money, but I did my research, I Googled her, I paid money to research her name, her phone number— everything matches up to who she is," Johnson said.

Johnson says she realizes she is not going to salvage the Christmas that she wanted to give her children. She says now she would like her money back or the puppy. Johnson said the next step may be to take this to the courts to get some resolution.