Circumstances Change

We got Gidget and her puppy Samson sometime in the summer of 1971. Gidget was a fertile Poodle, with a wonderful disposition--unless you left her alone in the house. Then she transformed into a raging lunatic. She was sold along with her pups soon after this Christmas photo was taken. Our first Christmas without Dad. His yellow chair behind me is empty.



I really liked these two puppies. The black one that you can't really make out is Susie, Collette and Fala's runt daughter that was raised by Fudder the cat. The apricot one is Samson. He was a couple months younger than Susie, and you can see how big he already was. Both of them were sold the week this photo was taken.

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After Fala was sold, mom picked up a white female and her apricot male puppy. Gidget and Samson were really cute, and a nice change from the silvers, greys, and blacks that I was used to having. Mom had planned to keep the Apricot male to breed to Collette, but like most of Fala's puppies, Samson grew and grew. His paws were big for his body size, and he just kept growing. Although he was a really pretty (and quite rare in 1971) apricot, Mom didn't want a big male to use for breeding. So Samson was sold.

Not long after Fala, Samson,Susie, and the rest of the puppies were all sold, my Dad suddenly died of a heart attack. Things instantly changed, Dad had been the sole breadwinner, with Mom's puppy and kitten money being a supplemental income. Now, things were different. Mom would be getting a Social Security check. And her health was not too good. She didn't think she was employable, so her lawyer told her to get another female poodle and a male so she could have a litter or two a year to bring in a little under the table money.

A tiny white poodle moved in across the street, and Mom immediately solicited his services for Gidget and for Collette. This little stud was lacking AKC papers, but not virility. Collette had 5 puppies and Gidget had 7! 12 puppies advertised as "Stocking Stuffers" at Christmas time made our first Christmas without dad tolerable. One of them, I remember, was sold to the parents of Lew Ayers in La Jolla. Now, I didn't know who that was. (still don't) I just remember Mom bragging about it to her friends.

Gidget would have been a great keeper, if she hadn't suffered from what we now call separation anxiety disorder. If you left her alone to even just go up to the corner grocery store, Gidget would start in on destroying the house. She chewed on the wooden furniture legs, the upholstered couch and chairs, she scratched deep grooves in the solid oak dining room door. And then, when she was locked in a carpeted room, she actually ate the carpet away from the door jamb and then threw up huge amounts of it later. Mom sold her along with her puppies, and we were back to just Collette and Tiny.