Fun Facts About Presidential Pets

Almost every American President had at least one pet roaming about the White House and/or White House lawn. The press often wrote stories about the White House pets to help humanize and soften the image of whatever president was in office at the time.

Probably the most famous and beloved White House pet of them all was FDR's terrier Fala.

A Fala Fun Fact: President Roosevelt took Fala along on a trip to the Aleutian Islands during World War II, and accidentally left the pooch behind on one of the islands. He then sent a Naval destroyer back to the island to retrieve Fala. This triggered a storm from Roosevelt critics. They claimed that he had wasted millions of taxpayers' dollars on this order. In a political speech, FDR retorted, ridiculing his critics for going after "my little dog."

The most infamous White House dog, through no fault of his own, was Richard Nixon's dog Checkers. Actually the Checkers incident occurred in 1952 when Nixon was running for Vice President under Eisenhower. After he had been accused of accepting illegal campaign contributions, he gave his Checkers speech where he listed his financial assets and admitted to accepting only one gift: a dog named Checkers from a Texas traveling salesman. He said, "The kids, like all kids, love the dog and I just want to say this right now that regardless of what they say about it, we're gonna keep it."

First Lady Barbara Bush even wrote a bestselling book about her White House dog, Millie. Then First Lady Hillary Clinton followed suit and compiled a book of letters from children to Socks the White House cat and Buddy the White House dog.

Of all the presidents, the biggest (and most unlikely) animal lover was "Silent Cal" Coolidge, easily our most taciturn president. His White House was, in fact, a menagerie. There were not only the usual dogs, cats, birds, and horses at the Coolidge White House; there was a bear cub, two lion cubs, a wallaby, an antelope, a donkey, a pygmy hippopotamus, a bobcat, and Cal's favorite, a raccoon named Rebecca. He often walked the raccoon around the White House on a leash.

A Rebecca Fun Fact: When the White House was being remodeled, Coolidge had a limo bring the raccoon to the family's temporary lodgings because he was afraid that Rebecca would get lonesome.

One of the White House pet low points was when a news photographer snapped President Lyndon Johnson lifting one of his pet beagles, Him, by the ears to greet visitors.

Another unusual White House pet was John Quincy Adams' silkworms. It was said that they provided the material for the First Lady's inaugural party dress. Also, Abraham Lincoln kept two goats who would ride around with him through Washington in his presidential carriage.

President Harry Truman, however, wasn't that big a dog lover. When someone gave him a dog as a gift, he gave the dog away. From that point, there was much press about Truman's "unwanted dog."

One of President Harry S. Truman's most famous quotes was: "If you want to have a friend in Washington, you should buy a dog."

SOURCES:

http://presidentialpetmuseum.com/Pets/fala.htm

http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/kids/inside/html/Spring99-3.html

http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/Johnson/archives.hom/FAQs/dog/doghouse.asp

"Our Presidents' Pets", Linda Owen, World and I, URL: (http://www.worldandi.com/subscribers/feature_detail.asp?num=24178)

http://presidentialpetmuseum.com/Pets/Algonquin.htm

http://presidentialpetmuseum.com/Pets/Him-Her.htm

http://presidentialpetmuseum.com/Pets/Yuki.htm