The First Litter

Samba's puppies were not the first litter of puppies that I've been responsible for. When I was a teenager I was given a young German Shepherd mix that I named Hermione. She was from a shelter and I don't know anything about her background.

When she was a bit over a year old I was saving my babysitting money to have her spayed, but she came into heat before I had enough.  One Saturday morning I had to go on a school trip. I was worried about leaving Hermione because I was afraid my four year old brother might let her outside alone, so I locked her in the garage.  When I got home several hours later I went to get her and discovered that the window to the garage was broken.  I asked my little brother if he'd seen any dogs around the garage and he said yes, the blue dog was there. I didn't know what he meant till the next day when he pointed to a black Cocker Spaniel in the yard and said, "there's the blue dog". Two months later we had a litter of four blue and white puppies.

There were two boys and two girls. This boy was named Louie and went to live with a family across town.

This boy, Claude, was the only child for a wonderful young couple who loved and pampered him. They kept in touch for the fifteen years of his life.

This was Penny. Doesn't she look like my Sydney? I kept her, but she only lived for four months. She had a brain tumor that was causing lots of problems and I had her put down before she got worse.

This is Zelda. She was adopted, but returned after just two weeks. I kept her and she was my constant companion for seventeen years till she died quietly in her sleep. She was a very smart, easy dog and we had many adventures together.

These photos were taken when the pups were eight weeks old. A week later Hermione was stolen. A group of dog thieves came thru our small town and took dogs from porches, pens and back yards. Hermione was snatched, but her puppies were in the house and were safe.