While her three children watch videos, color with crayons and keep up a constant stream of chatter in the living room, Paula Poundstone busily tends their pets: nine cats, a dog, two tadpoles, a rabbit and a large dragon lizard named Daisy that's taking a swim in the bathroom sink. As crowded as the three-bedroom Santa Monica rental may be, the 42-year-old stand-up comic feels she finally has the place to herself. A court-appointed monitor, who for the past year had scrutinized her every moment with Tosha, 11, Allison, 8, and Thomas, 4, has taken her leave. "It's really nice," says Poundstone in a subdued tone. "The kids never understood the point other than it was an inconvenience."

For their mother, it's also one step back to normalcy after 1½ years of upheaval. In June 2001 Poundstone was arrested after she was spotted driving drunk with the kids in her car. The children, who had been adopted by Poundstone—as well as two foster children she was caring for at the time—were taken from their home and placed in the custody of the state. "How much was I drinking? Too much," she says. "I'm lucky I didn't create more havoc."

Pleading no contest to felony child endangerment and misdemeanor child injury charges in September 2001, Poundstone was sentenced to 180 days in rehab and five years' probation. (Prosecutors quickly dropped a separate charge of lewd conduct.) But when she emerged clean and sober last December from Promises, the upscale Malibu rehab center famous for treating celebs, she found her ordeal was far from over. For close to a year she was only allowed daytime contact with Tosha, Allison and Thomas—and only in the presence of the monitor, who was discharged by a judge in November. The youngsters were required to spend each night at the house of a friend who was certified as a foster parent. "I broke the law and I've been punished, and I should have been, but the state, in their zeal to nail me, discounted my children," she says today. "They've suffered tremendously." A spokesperson for the Los Angeles county prosecutors has said they were satisfied that Poundstone's plea agreement was a proper way to resolve the case.

Barring any surprise developments, Poundstone was expected to regain full custody of her three children at a hearing Dec. 11. (The foster children will not be returned to her care. "We still miss them horribly," she says.) She believes the wounds will take time to heal. Tosha, Allison and Thomas are all special-needs kids with various disabilities, and "they've been lonely, sad and scared" as a result of their nightly separation from her, says Poundstonc, who has been a foster mother to eight children since 1993. "I think they should've been returned when I came out of rehab last December."

Another casualty in the controversy has been Poundstone's career as a stand-up. Once a $1 million-a-year performer who regularly turned up on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, she is now faced with rebuilding her reputation, playing small clubs and using her "life as a felon" as material for her act. "I think a lot of how she's come to grips with this is working it out onstage," says her manager Bonnie Burns. Under terms of her sentencing she can never adopt again. "So every time I drive past one of those Adopt-A-Highway signs," she jokes, "I say, 'No, not me. That's for others.' "

For the next 3½ years she must also see a therapist, attend three AA meetings a week and undergo random drug testing. "Peeing in a cup while someone stares at you—it's as humiliating as you'd assume," she says. Saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills, she had to sell her Santa Monica home last August, and she worries the payments on her new rental might be tough to make. "I honestly don't know how long we're going to be able to stay here," she says.

Despite the pressure, Poundstone asserts that she has been sober for 18 months. "Have I thought about taking a drink? Sure," she says. "Early on. But there are all kinds of reasons not to." Three of them are her kids. "I realize now that life is a series of problems, and who you are is defined by how you get through them," she says. "I hope to pass that on to my children. The other day we went to the grocery store and had the greatest time. We were just belly laughing because it was just us with each other for the first time."

Michael A. Lipton
Todd Gold in Santa Monica