Since then, Washington's calls and e-mails to try to get the papers have gone unreturned. "I'm really outraged, because I spent a lot of money ... and I'm waiting for the papers," Washington said.

Joyce Adkins of Waikiki paid $750 for a mixed Chihuahua and Brussels griffon puppy on April 2, and said she was told the dog received its immunization shots from a Kalihi veterinary clinic. But yesterday, Adkins found out otherwise.

After 27 dogs and two cats were confiscated Wednesday from a Hawai'i Kai condo suspected of being a puppy mill, people who say they did business with condo resident Lucy Kagan are stepping forward to share their experiences, a number of them flooding the Hawaiian Humane Society with complaints.

"I think that she should be stopped," Washington said.

The humane society opened an animal cruelty investigation Wednesday after confiscating the animals, which were discovered when firefighters responded to a small kitchen fire at the three-bedroom unit on Kawaihae Place.

Humane society investigators got a search warrant today so they could re-enter the condo and hunt for additional evidence, said Bryan Windisch, manager of field services for the humane society.

Even though "sanitary situations" prompted the investigation, Windisch said he was not concerned that the condo may have been cleaned since. There is already an abundance of "visual testimony" from police and firefighters who entered the home during an emergency, he said.

Windisch said the humane society had heard of Kagan before they were summoned to the condo on Wednesday. People who had purchased animals from her had called to report the pets were in poor health, Windisch said, adding that there was no way to know whether Kagan or a new owner was responsible.

"There is no way to prove that they didn't cause it themselves," he said.

The state Department of Health cited Kagan a year and a half ago for accumulation of animal waste at the condo, and also made six visits there regarding reports of odor and rats coming from the unit.

Officials from the department's vector-control branch visited the condo between Nov. 14, 2001, and April 22, 2002, said Janice Okubo, a spokeswoman for the health department.

The department conducted three investigations, and cited Kagan once, on Dec. 5, 2001. Kagan addressed the problems after each complaint, Okubo said.

Adkins said that after hearing about Kagan's situation on the news Wednesday she decided to contact the Kalihi clinic to verify her puppy had received its shots. "They said that they never saw this dog," Adkins said.

Adkins said she's upset because she has to pay for shots she thought her dog had already received. "There was misrepresentation there," Adkins said.

Court documents show that Kagan, 50, was born in Germany and has lived in Hawai'i for 23 years. Kagan did not return calls to The Advertiser yesterday.

Windisch said yesterday that animal cruelty complaints in the case stem from "horrendous" conditions at the condo, where there was "an enormous amount of feces, urine" throughout the property.

"There is sufficient evidence on our end that show that the animals have been treated poorly and unfairly and we're going to do everything that we can as investigators to make sure that whoever is responsible for this is cited," Windisch said.

Windisch said five humane society investigators are working on the case. "If we charge ... (Kagan) with cruelty, then we would not be giving her animals back," he said. "They would be evidence in the case."

Animal cruelty is a misdemeanor with possible penalties of up to a $2,000 fine and a year in jail, Windisch said.

Kagan said Wednesday the dogs were well fed, in good health and were well cared for.

She said she was boarding the dogs and had them for about two weeks.

Kagan said she agreed to take the animals in on an emergency basis for a friend who operates a kennel.

All of the dogs, except for her own, were expected to be gone within a week, she said.

Kagan said things got out of control when she had to rush to a Neighbor Island to care for a relative who was having surgery. She said her roommate agreed to care for the animals while she was gone for about a week, but that he apparently neglected his duties.

Both Adkins and Washington said they came in contact with Kagan through classified ads Kagan had placed in the newspaper.

Kagan was placing classifieds in The Advertiser under the rate paid by private parties, which is about one-fifth of what commercial pet merchants would pay, according to Advertiser account executives.

Glenn Zuehls, a classified-advertising manager at The Advertiser, said sales logs showed that Kagan had placed 63 ads so far this year and 338 ads since the beginning of 2001. He added that two weeks ago the company reclassified her as a business account, a decision Kagan was protesting.

"Because of the volume of her ads, it alerted us that this was not a person selling a dog here or there," Zuehls said. "It's more of a business."

The humane society was continuing to care for the confiscated animals, and most of the dogs "seem to be in reasonable condition," said humane society spokeswoman Eve Holt.

But two of the dogs were sent to a private veterinary clinic Wednesday for further examination; one puppy for dehydration and another dog for a possible pregnancy or tumor, Holt said.

"Many people have called to offer to adopt," said Linda Haller, director of shelter operations. ... "However, the humane society does not have ownership of the puppies so we cannot make them available for adoption at this time."

Windisch said the length of time the humane society will house the animals will be determined by the investigation.

Meanwhile, a check of court records showed that Kagan sued other people and was sued several times between 1990 and 2002.

The most recent case involves a criminal charge brought against Kagan earlier this year. She was indicted by an O'ahu grand jury on April 8 and charged with second-degree theft.

The indictment alleges that Kagan stole more than $300 worth of property from Kaimuki Dry Goods between Jan. 26 and Feb. 26, 2002.

Kagan posted $1,000 cash bail in that case. She was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to the charge last Monday. Her trial in that case is set for the week of July 7, court records show.