United States presidential pets

Socks at the White House Press Briefing Room lectern in 1993
Grace Coolidge with Laddie Boy, an Airedale Terrier, and Rob Roy, a white Collie
Controversy resulted from a 1964 photo of Lyndon B. Johnson pulling his dog by its ears.

Most United States presidents have kept pets while in office, or pets have been part of their families. Only James K. Polk, Andrew Johnson, and Donald Trump did not have any presidential pets while in office. However, Johnson did take care of some mice he found in his bedroom.

History of White House pets

The first White House dog to receive regular newspaper coverage was Warren G. Harding's dog Laddie Boy.

Pets also featured in presidential elections. Herbert Hoover got a "Belgian Police Dog" (Belgian Malinois), King Tut, during his campaign and pictures of him with his new dog were sent all across the United States.

Theodore Roosevelt was known for having many pets in the White House. He had six children who owned pets including snakes, dogs, cats, a badger, birds, and guinea pigs.

In 1944, Franklin D. Roosevelt was running for his fourth term when rumors surfaced that his Scottish Terrier, Fala, had accidentally been left behind when visiting the Aleutian Islands. After allegedly sending back ships to rescue his dog, Roosevelt was ridiculed and accused of spending thousands of taxpayers' dollars to retrieve his dog. At a speech following this Roosevelt said, "You can criticize me, my wife and my family, but you can't criticize my little dog. He's Scottish and all these allegations about spending all this money have just made his little soul furious." What was later called the "Fala speech" reportedly helped secure reelection for Roosevelt.

Miss Beazley, a Scottish Terrier given to Laura Bush by her husband

Richard Nixon was accused of hiding a secret slush fund during his candidacy for vice president under Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952. He gave the televised "Checkers speech" named after his cocker spaniel, denying he had a slush fund but admitting, "there is one thing that I did get as a gift that I'm not going to give back." The gift was a black-and-white cocker spaniel, Checkers, given to his daughters. Although there had been talk of Nixon being dropped from the ticket, following his speech he received an increase in support and Mamie Eisenhower reportedly recommended he stay because he was "such a warm person."

Animal lovers were upset when President Lyndon B. Johnson was photographed lifting his beagles, named Him and Her, by their ears. Others did not understand the uproar; former president Harry S. Truman said, "What the hell are the critics complaining about; that's how you handle hounds." Him died after he was run over by the presidential limousine.

Bill Clinton moved into the White House with Socks, a tuxedo cat, who in 1991 was reported to have jumped into the arms of Chelsea Clinton after piano lessons while the Clintons were living in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was later joined in 1997 by Buddy, a Labrador Retriever, during Clinton's second term. The two reportedly did not get along, with Clinton later saying "I did better with the Palestinians and the Israelis than I've done with Socks and Buddy" while Hillary Clinton said Socks "despised" Buddy at first sight. The two were, however, the subject of a book, Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets written by then First Lady Hillary Clinton and appeared as cartoons in the kids' section of the first White House website.

While George W. Bush was president, he had three dogs and a cat at the White House. Among the canines was Spot Fetcher, an English Springer Spaniel and the offspring of George H. W. Bush's dog, Millie. This made Spotty the first animal to live in the White House under two different administrations, having been born there in 1989 and passed away there in 2004.

Barack and Michelle Obama were without pets prior to the 2008 election, but promised their daughters they could get a dog when the family moved into the White House. They selected Bo, a Portuguese Water Dog, partly due to Malia Obama's allergies and the need for a hypoallergenic pet. The puppy was a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy and was later joined by Sunny, a female of the same breed. Bo was featured in the 2010 children's book Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters, written by President Obama with illustrations by Loren Long.

Joe and Jill Biden moved into the White House with two German Shepherds, Champ and Major. Major was the first shelter dog in the White House, while Champ returned to Washington, having joined the Biden family during Joe Biden's tenure as vice-president. The Bidens announced the death of 13-year-old Champ on June 19, 2021. In December 2021, the Bidens announced the arrival of a pedigreed German Shepherd puppy named Commander, gifted to them by Joe Biden's brother. Officials later told the press that Major had been rehomed to a quieter environment following a series of biting incidents. The Bidens had also promised they would get a cat, and they fulfilled that promise in January 2022 by adding a two-year-old gray tabby, Willow, to the family.

List of presidential pets

In addition to traditional pets, this list includes some animals normally considered livestock or working animals that have a close association with presidents or their families. Presidents have often been given exotic animals from foreign dignitaries; occasionally these are kept, but often they are promptly donated to a zoo.

President Pets
George Washington
Portrait of George Washington Taking the Salute at Trenton by John Faed shows Washington on his horse Blueskin.
John Adams
  • Juno, Mark, and Satan– dogs
  • Cleopatra and Caesar– horses
Thomas Jefferson
  • Dickmockingbird; Dick was the favorite from among at least four mockingbirds the president had while in office
  • Bergère and Grizzle– shepherd dogs from France, possibly Briards
  • Two grizzly bear cubs, a male and female pair gifted from Captain Zebulon Pike. Jefferson deemed them "too dangerous & troublesome for me to keep" and gave them to Charles Willson Peale's museum in Philadelphia
  • Caractacus– horse named after Caratacus, a 1st-century British chieftain. The horse was the offspring of Jefferson's mare Allycroker and a Godolphin Arabian named Young Fearnought
  • Sheep– beginning in 1807, the president bred sheep from "four of the most remarkeable varieties [...] pro bono publico." By spring 1808, there were nearly 40 sheep grazing at the president's house. One notorious Shetland ram was said to have killed "a fine little boy."
James Madison
James Monroe
  • A spaniel whose name is unknown belonged to Monroe's youngest daughter, Maria Hester Monroe
  • Sheepdogs were provided by Marquis de Lafayette as working dogs on Monroe's farm.
John Quincy Adams
  • Silkworms whose silk First Lady Louisa Adams spun.
  • An alligator– Said to have belonged to Marquis de Lafayette and housed for two months in the East Room, Although this story has been widely circulated, the lack of evidence from contemporary accounts or official records suggests an apocryphal myth.
Andrew Jackson
  • Polly (or "Poll")– grey parrot who learned to swear. She later attended Jackson's funeral but had to be removed due to loud and persistent profanity.
  • Fighting cocks
  • Bolivia, Emily, Lady Nashville, Sam Patch, and Truxton– horses Sam Patch was named after the famous daredevil known as "The Yankee Leaper."
Martin Van Buren
William Henry Harrison
John Tyler
James K. Polk
  • None
Zachary Taylor
  • Old Whitey – horse Taylor's wartime mount
  • Apollo – Pony; formerly a "trick pony" from a circus, a present for Taylor's daughter Betty and resided in the White House stables with Old Whitey
Millard Fillmore
Franklin Pierce
  • At least two miniature "teacup" Japanese Chin dogs, part of a gift exchange with Japan following the Perry Expedition
  • Two birds from Japan, which had just opened its trading posts to the United States.
James Buchanan
Abraham Lincoln
Old Bob caparisoned in a mourning blanket at Abraham Lincoln's funeral
  • Nanny and Nanko – goats
  • Jack – Turkey, intended as Christmas dinner, but Tad Lincoln intervened
  • Fido – dog, "assassinated" by a drunk with a knife, a few months after Lincoln's assassination; "Fido" became a generic name for a dog because of Lincoln's famous dog
  • Jip – dog
  • Tabby and Dixie – cats. Lincoln once remarked that Dixie "is smarter than my whole cabinet."
  • Horse
  • Rabbit
  • Old Bob – horse
Andrew Johnson
  • None, however, Johnson fed white mice he found in his bedroom
Ulysses S. Grant
  • Butcher's Boy, Cincinnati, Egypt, Jeff Davis (his wartime mount), Jennie, Julia, Mary, and St. Louis – Horses. Grant purchased Butcher's Boy from a butcher following an impromptu race on D.C. streets where he lost to this horse pulling a butcher's cart. Cincinnati was a thoroughbred of renowned racing pedigree.
  • Billy Button and Reb – ponies
  • Faithful – Newfoundland
  • Rosie – dog
Rutherford B. Hayes
James A. Garfield
Chester A. Arthur
  • Rabbit
  • Three horses
Grover Cleveland
Benjamin Harrison
Whiskers pulling a cart at the White House, with Russell Harrison and his children
Dash in front of his doghouse
  • Whiskers ("His Whiskers," or "Old Whiskers") – goat, kept at the White House for the president's grandchildren; may have belonged to Russell Harrison
  • Dash – collie
  • Mr. Reciprocity and Mr. Protection – opossums, named from the 1896 Republican party platform, which includes: "Protection and reciprocity are twin measures of Republican policy and go hand in hand."
  • Two alligators – According to one account, Russell Harrison kept two alligators in the White House conservatory
William McKinley
Theodore Roosevelt
Archie riding Algonquin
Roosevelt family with Skip
Illustration of Slippers, the White House cat
William Howard Taft
  • Caruso – dog, a gift for Taft's daughter Helen from opera singer Enrico Caruso; after a White House performance, he decided that cows were not appropriate pets for a little girl
  • Mooly Wooly and Pauline Wayne – cows. Pauline (or "Miss Wayne") was a Holstein of considerable fame; she "went missing" for two days.
Woodrow Wilson
  • Davie – Airedale Terrier
  • Old Ike – ram, led the flock of sheep
  • Puffins – cat
  • Bruce – Bull Terrier
  • songbirds
  • Sheep, numbering 48 at the flock's peak. The sheep kept the White House lawn trimmed "in the most economical way" and the wool was sold to benefit the Red Cross
Warren G. Harding
Laddie Boy
Calvin Coolidge
Portrait of Rob Roy and Grace Coolidge
  • Rob Roy (1922–1928) and Prudence Prim – White collies
  • Peter Pan – Wirehair Fox Terrier, the Coolidges' first White House dog;
  • Paul Pry – Airedale Terrier, half-brother of Warren Harding's Laddy Boy
  • Calamity Jane – Shetland Sheepdog
  • Tiny Tim and Blackberry – Chow Chows
  • Ruby Rouch – collie
  • Boston Beans – Boston bulldog
  • King Cole – Belgian Sheepdog (Groenendael)
  • Palo Alto ("Palo") – A black and white English Setter, a bird dog that Coolidge soon gave to Colonel Starling, chief of the Secret Service detail in the White House
  • Bessie – collie
  • Rebecca – raccoon, Rebecca was intended for a Thanksgiving feast; First Lady Grace had a tree-house built for her instead
  • Reuben – A male raccoon acquired as a companion for Rebecca; soon escaped and not recovered
  • Ebeneezer – donkey
  • Nip and Tuck – canaries, both olive green in color; the Coolidges' first birds
  • Peter Piper and Snowflake – Two more canaries; Snowflake was white
  • Goldy – A "yellow bird"
  • Do-Funny – a trained songbird (troupial) from South America; said to be Mrs. Coolidge's favorite bird
  • Enoch – goose
  • Smoky – bobcat
  • Blacky and Tiger (or "Tige") – cats
  • Tax Reduction and Budget Bureau – lion cubs from Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Billy – pygmy hippopotamus, full name: William Johnson Hippopotamus
  • A wallaby – Promptly given to a zoo
  • A duiker (a very small type of antelope) — Also sent to the zoo
  • Bruno – A black bear from Chihuahua, Mexico; Mrs. Coolidge promptly sent him to a zoo
  • Pekin ducks – Thirteen ducklings were received as an Easter gift; Mrs. Coolidge attempted to raise them in a White House bathroom, but eventually sent them to a zoo
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover with King Tut
Franklin D. Roosevelt
FDR and Fala (1940)
Harry S. Truman
  • Feller – Cocker Spaniel, because the Trumans "preferred to be a pet-free family" he was given as a puppy to Truman's personal physician and claimed to not be a "pet lover"
  • Mike – Irish Setter
Dwight D. Eisenhower
John F. Kennedy
Kennedy family and dogs
Lyndon B. Johnson
LBJ with Him
Richard Nixon
King Timahoe, Vicky and Pasha looking out the window in the White House
Gerald Ford
Susan Ford & Shan the Siamese cat
Susan Ford, daughter of Gerald Ford, and the family's Siamese cat, Shan, in 1974
Ford and Liberty in the Oval Office
Ford and Liberty in the Oval Office
  • Liberty (February 8, 1974 – 1984) – Golden Retriever
  • Lucky – dog
  • Misty – Liberty's puppy, born in the White House
  • Shan – Siamese cat
Jimmy Carter
Amy Carter with her cat Misty Malarky Ying Yang
Ronald Reagan
Reagan family pet spaniel, Rex
Rex
Ronald Reagan on El Alamein
Ronald Reagan on El Alamein
George H. W. Bush
Millie
Bill Clinton
Socks
George W. Bush
India
Barack Obama
Bo and Sunny
Donald Trump None
Joe Biden
Biden with Champ and Major
  • Champ (November 11, 2008 – June 19, 2021) – German Shepherd
  • Major (born January 17, 2018) – German Shepherd rescue. Sent to live with family friends in Delaware by December 2021 after several White House biting incidents.
  • Commander (born September 1, 2021) – German Shepherd gifted to the Bidens as a puppy by the president's brother, also removed from White House after biting incidents
  • Willow – gray tabby cat who was adopted after the cat jumped onstage during a rally in Pennsylvania in 2020. Willow, who Biden described as having "no limits", often sleeps on top of the president's head.
Key
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  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Species unknown
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See also

Further reading


This page was last updated at 2023-10-31 19:27 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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