I obviously don't know for sure but I do think you're being overly suspicious.
Sounds like the seller is a little busy or distracted in general. Probably hasn't had time to delist the animal in question (since he had to change ship day at last moment and didn't send requested tracking info, they aren't paying attention to the small details it seems). Is it possible your inquiry and the paypal also had different email addresses? Either that caused them to not realize the payment was from you or simply the seller again ignoring details or being overly distracted.
In the end, glad it all worked out well. I would probably just not do business again with a seller that made me feel uneasy but I don't see anything overly malicious happening here.