Snoopy has become a pop culture icon since his first appearance in Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip. In May 1965, Schulz decided to expand on the dog’s history and give him siblings, though at the time Snoopy only caught up with them at an off-page family reunion. While most fans can perhaps name one or two of Snoopy’s brothers and sisters, many will be surprised to find there is a whole litter.
The first sibling to actually appear in the Peanuts strips was Spike, who showed up over a decade after Snoopy’s brothers and sisters were first mentioned.
Four more were slowly introduced over the next 20 years, with the final two, Molly and Rover, never actually making it into the comic strip, only appearing in a TV special, 1991’s TV special, Snoopy’s Reunion.
Presenting: The Daisy Hill Puppy Farm Family
The five siblings who appeared at various points during Peanuts run each have a distinct variation on Snoopy’s appearance, giving a hint to their personality. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz used Snoopy’s siblings sparling – and in fact, later said he came to regret their introduction, for diminishing Snoopy’s uniqueness in the world of Peanuts. Still, introducing a large number of dog siblings, rather than simply one or two, stayed true to the nature of puppy births, as well as making for an effective punchline in the gag that originally revealed the existence of the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm family, from which Snoopy originated.
Snoopy’s Siblings Were Used Infrequently By Creator Charles Schulz
The most frequently used of Snoopy’s siblings was Spike, a skinny canine sporting a hat and mustache. Spike lived in the desert with a pack of mean coyotes, but he eventually began living on his own, with a potted cactus for company. Spike was named after Schulz’s real-life boyhood dog, who first inspired Snoopy’s character and antics, as revealed in the Who Are You, Charlie Brown? documentary. Snoopy’s sister Belle appeared a year after Spike, when Snoopy traveled to Kansas City. Though first drawn with eyelashes and a frilly collar to set her apart, she has been depicted with pearls, pink bows, and in the 2015’s The Peanuts Movie, with a heart-shaped spot on her back.
Six years later, Marbles visited his brother in the midst of one of Snoopy’s Red Baron fantasies. Named after the round spots on his ears, and shown wearing men’s dress shoes, Marbles was too much of a realist to join in on playing pretend. Olaf appeared in January 1989, when Lucy Van Pelt wanted to enter Snoopy, or one of his siblings, into an “Ugly Dog” contest. Olaf was disappointed to win, and was often the brunt of jokes about his appearance. Andy first appeared in the Snoopy’s Reunion TV special, and was added to the comic in 1994, via a sad story arc about Snoopy being hospitalized with pneumonia.
Andy’s appearance is most similar to Snoopy’s, though with shaggier fur. His name and design were inspired by another of Schulz’s real-life dogs, a wire-haired fox terrier. The remaining two siblings, Molly and Rover, were never named or shown in the comic, and debuted in the Snoopy’s Reunion TV special. Rover did subsequently appear as a character in the mobile game Snoopy’s Town Tale, but Molly did not. Belle was a popular design for Peanuts merchandise, for a time. Given the scattered nature of their appearances over the years, only die-hard Peanuts fans are likely to know Snoopy had so many sibilings.
