David smooches with one of his yet unnamed puppies.

David Cassidy was first introduced to Tiger Beat readers in the June 1970 issue. He had appeared on “Marcus Welby, MD,” “The F.B.I,” and “Adam 12” TV shows. The Partridge Family debuted on September 25, 1970. Like the Monkees show before them, The Partridge Family was an instant sensation, at least with the teenyboppers of the world. It was #25 in the ratings its first season, but David Cassidy was soon gracing the cover of Tiger Beat.

Produced by Screen Gems, who saw just how much Tiger Beat could contribute to promoting their stars, we were given early and constant entry to the show’s set. David and I hit it off immediately. In the early days, he was thrilled to be an instant fave and during that honeymoon period he was great to work with.

During an interview on the set one day in October, he began telling me how his roommate Sam’s dog “Sheesh” was the mother of a litter of puppies. The father was David’s dog “Sam.” Sheesh had given birth to a litter of 5 pups, a mixture of springer spaniel and wire-haired terrier, 2 females and 3 males. David was really worried about what he was going to do with all those puppies. He worked 12 hour days on the Partridge Family set and it’s not like he could put a classified ad in the newspaper “David Cassidy’s puppies, free to a good home.”

I told David, “I think I can help. What if my mom took care of the puppies at her home in Anaheim and we’ll have a contest in Tiger Beat for 5 of our readers to win one of your puppies?” He loved the idea; and added the stipulation that he be allowed to make the hour drive to Anaheim to visit the puppies over the 2 months it would take us to publish the contest, choose the winners and then ship the puppies to their new families. It wasn’t like drawing up a custody agreement, but David did love those puppies and it was not easy for him to part with them.

I got so attached to the little darlings, I wanted to adopt one myself. That would not have worked too well with my 2 bedroom Hollywood apartment with no pets allowed!

They had been weaned; so once I gathered up five kennels, I moved the puppies to my mom’s house where they frolicked in the big grassy backyard. We had had a darling beagle, Toby, while I was growing up, so my mom was a willing participant in the arrangement; and a little starstruck knowing she was going to be meeting David Cassidy.

Our next step was to set up the rules of the contest and my suggestion was the readers who came up with the best names (as chosen by David) would win a puppy. We got thousands of entries and whenever there was a duplicate, we had stated it would be whoever’s entry was postmarked first was the winner. I was going out to the set almost daily with the entries and David would quickly dispense with those that did not catch his attention and slowly he had it narrowed down to some unique names that really resonated with him.

Pouring over the thousands of entires was daunting, but David really felt like he was carefully choosing the pups adoptive families.

The first winner was Janice Richards of Pasco, Washington for the name “Cassy,” which was short for Cassidy and David asked “what guy could resist that tribute?” Second was Christie Barker of Shreveport, Louisiana who named the other female “Dainty.” David said, “Dainty was always the tiniest one in the litter and this name really fit her. She’s the little lady of the bunch, very dainty and always a playful puppy. She’s a doll.” Third was “Happy,” as Anna Schacherl of Beasley, Texas said in her entry, “Happiness, because that’s what winning one of your puppies would bring me.” So, the tan puppy became “Happy.” Fourth was Patricia Harris of Danville, Illinois. David’s comment was “Tiger was the biggest of the litter and a real go-getter when I’d battle him for my socks!” He was touched too that Patricia put in her entry, “I thought Tiger Beat was such a groovy magazine, by naming one of the pups Tiger I would say thank you to Tiger Beat for having this great contest!” Fifth was “Pepper,” what more perfect name for the black dog of the litter. David’s response, “Pepper has a big white section on his belly, so when he stands up on his hind legs he looks like salt and pepper.” For their ingenuity, sisters Julie and Jana Minemoto of Monterey, California were thrilled to be sharing their prize.

When David came to say goodbye to the puppies just before we sent them to their new homes he could not believe how they’d grown.

David made it down to my mom’s house to visit the puppies twice. Once when he hadn’t seen them for several weeks and then again just before I had to ship them via air freight to the winners. Mom tried to be cool, but she couldn’t resist giving David a huge hug when he first walked into our family home. He, in turn, was very gracious to my mom and expressed his sincerest thanks to her for taking care of the puppies.

I had spent many weekends at home during this time because it was so much fun “mothering” the puppies. Even in that short amount of time I became very attached. When it came time to take each of them to the airport, I couldn’t help myself from crying each time the cargo agent set the crate on the conveyor belt like it was a just another box to be shipped. I cried all the way back from LAX to my office each and every time.

Good times. . .Ann Moses reporting about “back in the day.”