When Moose's character was introduced around 1948(?), his girlfriend was a petite shorthaired blonde names Lottie Little. And Moose treated her like he treats his current girlfriend, Midge, like a possession. If you're a guy, don't you dare look at or speak to Lottie, or you will incur Moose's wrath!! But it seemed like Lottie just vanished after a few years and replaced. My question is, Was there any Lottie "send off story" where she moves away, breaks up with Moose, etc? Or are her and Midge really the same girl?

Well, in Battle of the BFFs, Lotta returned as he own character separate from Midge.

I'm pretty sure it's the same like Ophelia, early Ethel, where she just got replaced.

Sure... Ophelia became Big Ethel, and Lottie Little became Midge Klump.

In Archie Comics, there are a lot of characters that are used as prototypes, with minor tweaks, for later characters. In WILBUR you had Alec, who with a minor tweak becomes the later Alexander Cabot III; just as Alexandra and Alex from JOSIE are prototypes (with minor tweaks) for Cheryl and Jason Blossom.