First Litter

Collette and Fala's litter, after they were weaned from their mothers. These puppies were litter box trained by the two runty siblings when they left their cat family and returned to their real brothers and sisters.
We set up a play pen in the kitchen, next to the washer and dryer. One of the biggest males used to like to climb to the top of the playpen to watch me mix up their meals in the big brownie pan.




Fala, Collette and the six puppies. I lobbied hard to be able to keep the littlest girl, and for a while I got my way. I named her Susie. Fala was such a happy dog. If you made eye contact with him, he'd sit up on his haunches and wave his front paws. He was doing this in the photograph.

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Now that Mom found her pedigreed Poodle, she now needed to find a male to breed it to. Mom really did not like male dogs. She said they lifted their legs everywhere and couldn't be housetrained. so she set out about the neighborhood looking for a male willing to be of a few days service to Collette.

Turns out, there was a cute little black poodle just around the corner. His name was Buffer and he didn't have any papers. But he was good enough for a first litter. Collette had two little babies from that breeding. A boy and a girl. They were pure black. I don't remember getting too attached to them, because they were sold by the time they turned 6 weeks old. Mom didn't get all that much for them, because they didn't have AKC registration. But, it was a good test breeding. Collette was a great mother and the puppies were healthy.

One Saturday, Mom was going through the Heartland News when she came upon an ad for a charcoal-colored toy male poodle for sale. He had his papers, and he wasn't neutered. She rushed out and bought him for $25. I fell in love with this dog immediately. His name was Fala Brandi-B-Bomb. During the time Fala was with us, I made him my pet. He was so obedient, he didn't need a leash. When we kids walked up to the market to get a candy bar, Fala waited patiently outside for us to make our purchase and return to him. He also knew my school schedule. Around 2:30 every day, he scratched at the door. Mom let him outside, and he walked to the corner, sat down, and waited for the 3:00 school bell to ring. My school was 3 blocks away, and I could see that little dog waiting for me as I headed towards home. Fala was the ideal pal. And he never once peed in the house.

When the time came, he was bred to Collette. She had 6 puppies from that breeding. There were 4 boys and 2 girls. Two of these puppies were the ones raised by Fudder our cat.

I shouldn't have become so attached to Falla. Mom sold him the same time she sold his six litterbox trained puppies. The puppies (4 of them) were growing too large to be sold as Toys, and Mom didn't want to raise Miniatures, so Fala had to be replaced by a smaller male. Plus, my dad, who didn't want a houseful of dogs, didn't really want him around either. I was heartbroken. It wouldn't be the last time I would have to say goodbye to a really wonderful pet.

Our First Purebred Poodles

A summer photo of me taking Tiny and Collette for a bike ride. Looking back, I am amazed at a couple of things. 1. That the dogs didn't jump out of the basket and break their legs, and 2. That there are hardly any cars parked on the street. If you go to Eagle Street today, you usually won't find an open spot. Back in the 60s and 70s, most families had only 1 car, and all the old ladies on my street didn't have any cars. Today, everyone has at least 2 vehicles.



Musette and Tiny. These two dogs hated each other, and would try to kill each other any chance they got. A vet suggested that we muzzle them and let them fight it out without using their jaws. We tried it and they nearly dropped dead with exhaustion fighting anyhow. The plan didn't work, and Mom found a good home for Musette a week later.


Collette, Tiny, and Tiny's final puppy, Nopey. Tiny was about 11 or 12 years old when she had him. Nopey was an accident, and we never knew who the father was, since we never saw Tiny sneak out to meet her suitor. We didn't even think Tiny could get pregnant any more. Mom advertized Nopey as a "Toy St Bernard" and we had hundreds of calls. We could have sold dozens of Nopeys.
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Our first two poodles were a mother and daughter. The mother's name was Musette Smida, and her daughter's name was Nicole Collette. Musette was a large silver miniature from American and English lines. She had been bred to a tiny toy Champion from the famous Sassafras kennels in Topanga Canyon California. This sire's name was Ch. Sassaboy of Sassafras. They had two female puppies, Suzette and Collette. The owners kept Suzette, and we ended up with the other two.

Musette and Collette were both very sweet and friendly dogs. They liked kids, even putting up with my 2 year old brother and sister. They didn't mind our Manx cat either. The one problem however, was one that couldn't be remedied: Musette and Tiny hated each other. They couldn't stand even looking at each other and immediately went for each other's throats. Collette, who got along with everyone in the house, stood back and watched her mother and Tiny attack each other at any opportunity. After a particularly bloody battle, my mother realized that we couldn't keep both of those two alpha bitches. and Tiny had seniority. So Musette had to go. Once she was gone in a new home with no other dogs, Tiny was happy once again. Collette had no desire to challenge Tiny for the title of Alpha, and there was never a problem between those two dogs for the rest of their lives.

Of the two Poodles, Collette was by far the least attractive. Coming from a long legged mother and a short legged father, Collette took some traits from each parent. The results were not pretty. She had a long Miniature head and muzzle, short Toy ears and neck, a long thick body, and short, squat legs. Her body shape resembled a Basset Hound more than a Poodle's form. She was steel grey, and had large flat feet. But she was smart, calm, and sweet. And with that long wide body, it was a given that she could carry many puppies.

How it All Started

Tiny in her favorite spot--at Dad's feet. When he was relaxing in his leather La-Z-Boy, Tiny settled in with him.



Tiny's puppies from a Toy Poodle sire. One was white and the other turned silver.



Tiny, the family pet. She loved everyone in the family, and was always participating in some way in our activities. A poster dog for hybrid vigor, she lived to be about 15 years old, with no problems except for a bout of eclampsia with one of her litters.


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It all started back in the early 1960's. My Mom was a shrewd woman who was always looking for ways to make an extra buck to help keep her big family fed. In our family, you were useless unless you contributed. That not only included the humans, but also the animals. So, the cats and dogs were expected to labor for the good of the household. For them, labor meant, well, labor.

When I was born, I joined a family that already had a mixed breed dog named Tiny. Tiny was a small mostly white dog with a tan mask and ears, and a round tan spot on the base of her spine. Her plumed tail curled up over her back, and she stood about 13" tall at the shoulders. Mom said she was a mixture between a Poodle,Spitz, and Shetland Sheepdog. Tiny was an interesting hybrid because she rarely produced a puppy that resembled her. Mom soon discovered the beauty in Tiny's genes was almost magical: Tiny's puppies generally resembled their sire, almost to the point where they could "pass" as purebreds.

When bred to a Chihuahua, Tiny's puppies came out tiny, round-headed, fawn-colored, and shaky. Bred to a Dachshund, the two resulting offspring were dark brown, shorthaired, with long ears, bodies, and muzzles. A shaggy cream-colored Lhasa Apso sire gave Tiny 3 long-haired cream and tan fluff-balls. A silver Poodle father produced 4 curly-haired black puppies that started turning silver with their first clipping at 6 weeks of age.

Back in those days, before it became politically incorrect to breed your pet, Mom supplemented the family income by having a litter or two a year. It was never difficult to sell these cute little mongrels. Mom easily found homes for the puppies, by selling them for $25.00 a piece, or taking something in trade, like a used bicycle or books of trading stamps. People who already had one of Tiny's puppies came back for another one to add to the family.

Those Poodle-mix puppies were such a hit with the customers that Mom soon realized that if she were to have purebred AKC Poodle parents, she could sell the pups for a much higher price, and with dad getting laid off from his aerospace job every year or so, every extra buck counted. So, in 1968, Mom started looking around for an opportunity to buy an AKC Poodle. As luck would have it, she found a pair of females in the classified ad section of the local Heartland News.