A New Brunswick woman claims she has been cheated out of her dogs, possibly by a woman convicted of animal cruelty.

Cassie Craft says she boarded her two Boxers, Diamond and Bentley, when she returned to school in November after realizing she couldn’t care for the dogs while working and attending school.

She began looking for help and after exhausting her search in the Saint John area, a Nova Scotia woman answered her online ad.

Craft reluctantly moved the dogs to the Halifax area on a temporary basis and kept in regular contact with their keeper for awhile.

“She emailed me and she said they’re doing great. She talked to me on the phone and said they’re doing great, and then all of a sudden I stopped getting emails.”

Another ad appeared online around the same time the emails stopped, offering to sell two dogs similar to Craft’s.

Craft grew concerned when she saw the ad, and went online saying her dogs might have been stolen and sold by the same woman with whom she entrusted their care.

“Her name was Ashley, as I knew her, and then after I put that ad out, people started emailing me her name was Gail.”

What Craft learned next shocked her.

“I searched her on YouTube and Google and that’s where I seen everything and I recognized her.”

Craft says the woman is Gail Benoit, who has been convicted of animal cruelty in the past.

CTV News phoned the number included in the ad, but it has since been disconnected. Other attempts to contact Gail Benoit were unsuccessful.

Police in Bridgewater say they have only just begun looking into the case, conducting only a portion of the interviews they need.

They aren’t releasing any information just yet, but indicated they may release information about the case later this week.

Meanwhile, Craft says she has spoken to those who bought the dogs she claims are hers.

“They basically told me…that they don’t want to deal with people saying that their dogs are stolen and they bought them and they said they bought them from some girl in a black SUV.”

Craft says she is worried about her dogs and has learned a hard lesson. She hopes her dogs will be returned to her, and if they are, she says she won’t let them out of her sight again.

She says she will also have trouble trusting others in the future.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Andy Campbell