Presidents and Pets: A T-Boy Odyssey Into Why They Loved One Another – Tales of nonpartisan, unconditional love

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.

– Josh Billings, US humorist writer

Many of America’s presidents have found friendship and solace in their pets. It’s a tradition that goes all the way back to our first president and founding father, President George Washington, the founding father who was also the first president to have bred foxhounds.

As of today, 46 U.S. Presidents have had pets while they resided in the White House. And, like many of us today, the pets became part of their families, offering courage, patience, forgiveness, comfort and unconditional love, particularly during stressful periods in office.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michele, accepted a puppy as a gift from Senator Edward Kennedy. The dog was a Portuguese water dog that they named Bo. Then in 2013, the Obamas brought home a second Portuguese water dog, name Sunny.

White House Animal Paths

Historically, the pets at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue have mirrored national trends in animal ownership. Early presidents had working animals such as hounds for hunting and horses for transportation, but a wider variety of animals soon made their way to the White House.

In the 1920s, President Coolidge’s animals included a bobcat, a donkey, lion cubs, ducks, a wallaby pygmy hippo, and a raccoon named Rebecca, who walked on a leash.

From William Taft’s cow, Pauline Wayne, to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Scottish terrier, Fala, and George H. W. Bush’s English springer spaniel, Millie, many White House animals have achieved celebrity status.

US Presidents with the Most Pets

Tabby and Dixie were cats, and Abraham Lincoln once remarked that Dixie is smarter than my whole cabinet.

James Buchanan received a herd of elephants from the King of Siam.  But as elephants are the largest land animals alive today, Buchanan found them to be too large for the White House, and sent them to the zoo.

Misty Malarky Ying Yang was Jimmy Carter’s daughter’s pet Siamese cat. An Elephant was given to her, but again too big to fit in the White House rooms, and was sent to the National zoo, too.

The True Story of Teddy Roosevelt and the Teddy Bear

In 1902, Teddy Roosevelt accepted a hunting invitation from Mississippi governor, Andrew Longino, and they traveled with their guide, who was determined to find a black bear for Roosevelt to shoot. It was easy for the guide to corner an old bear, and decided to tie the bear up, making the shot easier for Roosevelt to fire.

When Roosevelt realized what the guide had done, he was astonished and fired back in anger and said that such an act would be unsportsmanlike to shoot such an old and vulnerable creature. The news of Roosevelt’s act of compassion spread across globe, and in his honor that is why we have the Teddy Bear.

Our 26th, President Theodore Roosevelt began his presidency in 1901, along with six children and more animals than the White House had ever seen before. The Roosevelt children’s family of pets included a small bear named Jonathan Edwards; a lizard named Bill; guinea pigs named Admiral Dewey, Dr. Johnson, Bishop Doane, Fighting Bob Evans and Father O’Grady; Maude the pig; Josiah the badger; Eli Yale the blue macaw; Baron Spreckle the hen; a one-legged rooster; a hyena; a barn owl; Peter the rabbit; and Algonquin the pony. President Roosevelt loved the pets as much as his children did. Algonquin was so beloved that when the president’s son, Archie, was sick in bed, his brothers Kermit and Quentin brought the pony up to his room in the elevator. But Algonquin was so captivated by his own reflection in the elevator mirror that it was hard to get him out!

The Theodore Roosevelt family were dog lovers as well. Among their many canines were Sailor Boy, a Chesapeake retriever; Jack the terrier, Skip the mongrel, and Pete, a bull terrier who sank his teeth into so many legs that he had to be exiled to the Roosevelt home in Long Island. Alice, his daughter, had a small black Pekingese named Manchu, which she received from the last empress of China during a trip to the Far East.

Alice once claimed to have seen Manchu dancing on its hind legs in the moonlight on the White House lawn, though it has never been determined if there ever was an elephant dancing on its hind legs in the White House rooms. But, apparenty, there is one today in a very different kind of room.

Another Kind of Elephant in the Room

As of late, fake news outlets have been on fire due to a particularly large elephant in their broadcast rooms with the recent release of South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem’s ghostwritten book, No Going Back.

South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem takes a cheap shot at “fake news” for the backlash against her killing an untrainable 14-month-old wirehair pointer, named “Cricket,” 20-years-ago in a gravel pit on her family property, moments before her children arrived from school!

But, later, she had the courage to hurry back to her pickup, grabbed another shell, went back to the gravel pit, and put him down; “Him” being the demon goat, which had a wretched smell, who often chased and knocked Noem’s children around.

I’m aware that a parent who knocks their kids down is the greatest sin ever committed by a parent, who deserves a one-way ticket to a lifetime in prison. But should an owner who knocks down a kid goat deserve less? And the one with a such a wretched smell, something I never seemed to notice when I petted the kid, Billie Goat, at Seattle’s Woodlawn Park Zoo, when I was a kid, too.

Noem said to her ghostwriters in her ghostwritten book. No Going Back, which includes the fictional meeting with North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un. The North Korean dictator who she’s sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants (I’d been a children’s pastor, after all), which she now blames on her ghostwriters, but refuses to walk them back and retrack the words she commanded her ghostwriter’s to ghostwrite in her ghostwritten book.

Oh, how I kid South Dakota Republican Governor Noem, why I only heard about her on Fox News TV, where she informed viewers that she was on a mission to tell us the REAL meaning of Thanksgiving: Here the poor Pilgrims were close to starving and they shared their last food with Native-Americans (the 25 Tribal Nations of the Wampanoag People) it was all part of God’s Divine Providence.

“God’s Divine Promise” fulfilled, and illustrated in “The First Thanksgiving,” a reproduction of a painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, courtesy of the Associated Press.

Did the Pilgrims use “God’s Divine ‘Providence” as an excuse to sit in Plymouth Harbor and wait on the Mayflower for the final act of “God’s Divine Providence” to be done? Were they just too excited and couldn’t wait to siege the Wampanoag People’s Tribal Land for just a few more days? When they arrived there were many felled fields to plant, but surround by many dead bodies of the 25 Tribal Nations of the Wampanoag People. Apparently “God’s Divine Providence” was first issued to the Spanish Conquerors, who shared no food, but only European diseases which the Wampanoag People had no immunity from. But with no gold to be found, the Spanish Conquerors left Plymouth, leaving only endless Wampanoag dead bodies scattered around, some still alive, desperately crawling on the ground. The few people that manged to stay alive, where left for the Pilgrims to fulfill “God’s Divine Providence” and get the job done.

The next Thanksgiving celebrated was 1637 when Massachusetts Colony Governor John Winthrop declared a day of thanksgiving after volunteers murdered 700 of the Tribal Nation Pequot People. As we remember the celebration of Thanksgiving, sharing indigenous food from the New World, I recall that the American-Indian Tribal Nations consider it as a Day of Remorse.

Historians are hailing Congress to elevated Ulysses S. Grant to the military’s highest rank, calling it a rehabilitation of his political and racial legacy. Photograph courtesy of Newsreader1.com.

On June 18, 1870, our eighteenth president, Ulysses S. Grant, signed into law the Holidays Act that made Thanksgiving a yearly appointed federal holiday. Grant preferred horses above all other animals as pets, but he and his family members did have other pets with them in the White House, including two dogs. One was a Newfoundland named Faithful, but the other was a dog named Rosie, who was rumored to be a black-and-tan dog of no determinate breed. According to Seymour Reit in Growing Up in the White House, Grant would often take dinner in the stables and talk to both the horses and to Rosie while he ate.

Fala: The Most Famous Dog in America

President Franklin D. Roosevelt had a lifelong affection for dogs. They were a constant presence in his life from his early childhood. FDR owned a number of dogs during his lifetime, but his best-known was Fala, the Scottish terrier he was given in August 1940.

Fala quickly became his constant companion. He slept in a special chair at the foot of FDR’s bed and every morning had a bone that was brought up on the President’s breakfast tray. Fala is buried in a marked grave about ten yards behind the Roosevelt tombstone in the Rose Garden at Springwood, beside Chief (1918–1933), the Roosevelts’ German Shepherd.

The first U.S. President with pets who maintained a farm was George Washington

Like South Dakota Republican Governor, Kristi Noem, George Washington was a farmer who had pets, though it’s never been determined if he had the courage to put any of his pets down in a gravel pit. I have many friends and families who are farmer with pets, who are aware that their pets were once wild animals, but they chose to domesticate their wild critters into something more profound. And once this transition was completed, the pets loved them and they loved them back. I read somewhere that there is no such thing as a bad pet dog, only a bad owner, who made them be like that. Was there a reason why Noem’s 14-month-old pet Cricket, didn’t love her; is it possible she never loved him, and that’s why he never loved her back?  

Washington’s pets included, Sweetlips, Scentwell and Vulcan – American Foxhounds; Drunkard Taster, Tipler and Tipsy – Black and Tan Coonhounds; an Andalusian donkey (a gift from King Charles III of Spain); Nelson and Blueskin – horses ( that were Washington’s wartime mounts); Snipe – parrot (said to have been owned by First Lady Martha Washington); and the Stallions, Samson, Steady, Leonidas, Traveller and Magnolia.

Cornwallis was a greyhound, named for British General Cornwallis, though not sure if the stallion served as a trophy due to General Washington’s victory at Yorktown, or an homage to the man he defeated, giving up any chance of winning the Revolutionary War.

Pushinka (Russian: Пушинка), known to us as ‘Fluffy’

Pushinka was a dog who was given by the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy in 1961.

Words taken from White House dog handler Traphes Bryant

“Pushinka (which the Kennedy family now refers to as Fluffy), struck up a romance with the Kennedy’s Welsh terrier, Charlie. In June 1963, Pushinka had puppies. Caroline and John-John named them Butterfly, White Tips, Blackie and Streaker. JFK referred to the puppies as pupniks since Pushinka was the daughter of a dog who had been to space on the Russians’ Sputnik 2. When the puppies were two-months-old, the First Lady picked two children from the thousands that had written to the White House asking for one of the pups. That’s how Butterfly and Streaker got adopted. The other puppies were given to family friends.”

“The father of the puppies, Charlie, was large and in charge. He bossed the other dogs around and made sure he got first dibs at dinnertime. When given the chance, he showed humans who was boss, too. If a visitor ignored him, Charlie peed on that person. Although he was not an official watchdog, he growled if someone got too close to JFK.”

Bryant describing events in the Oval Office during the Cuban missile crisis:

“I was there in Jack Kennedy’s office that day. Everything was in an uproar. I was then feet from Kennedy’s desk as Pierre Salinger ran around the office taking messages and issuing orders while the President sat looking awfully worried. There was talk about the Russian fleet coming in and our fleet blocking them off. It looked like war. Out of the blue, Kennedy suddenly called for Charlie to be brought to his office. After petting Charlie, his Welsh terrier, the president relaxed, returned Charlie to the kennel keeper, and said, ‘”I suppose that it’s time to make some decisions.”“

In his book American Legacy: The Story of John and Caroline Kennedy, author David Heymann relates a story from White House nanny Maud Shaw: “Caroline and her nanny encountered Pushinka as she was being walked by a kennel worker on the White House grounds. As Caroline reached to pet the dog, Pushinka growled.”

“Instead of recoiling, Caroline stepped behind the dog and gave it a swift kick to the rear end,” Heymann writes. “Emitting a howl, Pushinka turned tail and raced off into the night.”

When Shaw related the story to JFK, the president smiled at his daughter and said, “That’s giving it to those damn Russians!”

Animals in Judaism & Christian Theology

The photograph above is a Peruvian school’s Nativity Scene, taken by former Peace Corp. Volunteer, Alex Brouwer. The Nativity Scene depicts the Virgin Mary and Joseph solemnly looking down at the infant, Jesus, the new king of Israel, surrounded by an array of different animals, for he is their New King, as well, and they will inherit the earth, too.

Saint Francis of Assisi & the Nativity Scene

Saint Francis of Assisi, the Patron Saint of Animals, is credited with creating the first live Nativity Scene in 1223 in order to cultivate the worship of Christ. He had recently been inspired by his visit to the Holy Land, where he’d been shown Jesus’ traditional birthplace in Bethlehem. Saint Francis’ pantomime of the Nativity Scene is the first real symbol of Christmas. The scene’s popularity spread throughout the world, inspiring other countries to stage similar Nativity Scenes.

To find out more about St. Francis and the Nativity Scene, why the Roman holiday of Saturnalia became the Happy Holy Days (Happy Holidays) and the Mass of Christ (Christmas), CLICK HERE.

Do animals praise the name of the Lord?

Psalm 148 commands all of creation to praise the Lord, including animals: “Wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth, young men and maidens, old men and children. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.” (vv. 10-13).

What would Jesus do?

Don’t give holy things to dogs, don’t throw your pearls to pigs, lest they trample them under their feet and, turning, tear you to pieces. – Matthew 7:6. (English language translation by Francis Bacon).

What would Reverend Billy Graham say?

God will prepare everything for our perfect happiness in heaven, and if it takes my dog being there, I believe he’ll be there.

Heaven-bound persons who are offended at the thought of dogs and cats frisking on the golden streets will have a difficult time with the odd beasts gathered around the throne as described in the Book of Revelation.

Or Mark Twain?

The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven not man’s.

President William Jefferson Clinton first arrived at the White House with Socks, who in 1991 was reported to have jumped into the arms of daughter, Chelsea Clinton after piano lessons while the Clintons were living in the Governor’s Mansion in Little Rock. He was later joined in 1997 by Buddy, a Labrador Retriever, who was named after a longtime Clinton family friend who died around the time they adopted the dog.

During President Clinton’s second term, the two reportedly did not get along, with Bill Clinton later saying, I did better with the Palestinians and the Israelis than I’ve done with ‘Socks and Buddy.’

Presidential Pets and the Media

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

When FDR’s Fala’s fame spread, he became the subject of books, including this 1942 picture book titled The True Story of Fala. He even starred in two MGM newsreels shown in movie theaters: Fala, the President’s Dog and Fala at Hyde Park.

Fala’s growing popularity is reflected in the thousands of letters he received from the public, where they are all preserved today among the papers stored at the Roosevelt Library.

The book, Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids’ Letters to the First Pets was written by First Lady Hillary Clinton, and later appeared as cartoons in the kids’ section of the first White House website.

Millie was an English springer spaniel that was the first President Bush’s family pet. She gave birth to Spotty, who moved into the White House with the second President Bush. H. W. also had two Scottish terriers named Barney and Miss Beazley, but Spotty was the only pet to live in the White House during two administrations

“Study hard, and you might grow up to be President. But let’s face it: Even then, you’ll never make as much money as your dog.” — President George H. W. Bush, to a graduating class, referring to Millie, his dog, who earned $889,176 (about $1,979,459 today) in book royalties.

George H. W. Bush and First Lady Barbara’s Millie is the only first pet to actually write a book, Millie’s Book. And their son, George W. Bush’s Scottish terrier, Barney had his own website and appeared in Barney Cam videos.

Presidents and Pets: Bits & Pieces

• President Thomas Jefferson bought his dog, Bergere, in France. She had two puppies onboard the ship heading back to the United States.
• James Buchanan is the only president who never married. His large Newfoundland, Lara, kept him company in the White House.
• Woodrow Wilson, in office 1913-1921, owned a pet ram, named Old Ike, who was known for chewing tobacco and cigars, which makes sense as North Carolina is often referred to as the Tobacco State.

• Top Five Dog Names of 2023
  
  Girl: Luna, Bella, Daisy, Maggie and Willow
  Boy: Max, Charlie, Cooper, Teddy and Milo
  
• Goat on the Loose!
  
  Benjamin Harrison, our 23rd President ran down Pennsylvania Avenue holding on to his top hat and waving his cane, but his pet goat kept running, only stopping later after numerous Washington, D.C., residents had seen the Commander-in-Chief chasing the runaway goat.

Commander & Chief, President Joseph R. Biden

The Bidens added a puppy named Commander to their family, following the death of their beloved German Shepherd, Champ, who passed away at the age of 13. But in 2018, all the abandoned pets throughout the U.S. rejoiced when the Bidens adopted the German shepherd, Major, from the Delaware Humane Association.

Major arrived at the White House to great applause, but his time at the White House was short, after a series of biting incidents. Major was sent to Delaware in April 2021 for training, and then the White House announced that Major’s permanent home would be elsewhere, a decision based on consultations with veterinarians, dog trainers and animal behaviorists.

While it may have disappointed those hoping Major would usher in a new age of presidential shelter pets, Major’s story shows that shelter dogs, like any other pet, need time and patience to adjust, and sometimes need to find a better match.

Andrew Jackson, had a pet, a grey parrot named Polly, who learned how to swear. She later attended Jackson’s funeral but had to be removed due to loud and persistent profanity. Perhaps Polly had not forgotten that Jackson had forced thousands of American-Indian Tribal Nations to leave their ancestral homeland in his illegal Indian Relocation Act, which led to countless deaths on the Trail of Tears. And remember, like the remaining tribal nations have never forgotten, never use a twenty-dollar bill as the tyrant, Old Hickory’s face is on it.

The Cherokee People and their pets and animals on the “Trail of Tears.” Painting by Robert Lindneux, courtesy of National Geographic.

It seemed curious at first that the U.S. President Trump selected Jackson as his favorite among our past presidents. But as his years in the Oval Office progressed, it became clear that they were both cut from the same white cloth.

For more on Jackson’s illegal Indian Relocation Act, the Trail of Tears and the plight of the Cherokee Tribal Nation, CLICK HERE.

The state which has the strongest animal abuse laws

For the second year in a row Maine maintains its first-place rank, followed by Illinois (2), Oregon (3), Colorado (4) and Rhode Island (5).

New Mexico remained in 50th place, with Idaho (49), Mississippi (48), Alabama (47) and Utah (46) rounding out states with the weakest animal protection laws.

“BONNER COUNTY, Idaho — The Bonner County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) has filed charges for animal cruelty and abandonment against 45-year-old Jacob M. McCowan and 31-year-old Jessica L. Smurtwaite, after 31 Husky-type dog were found across North Idaho.”

“Sugar” is pictured resting after being adopted by Heather Toliver. The medical team from “Better Together Animal Alliance” believes she was a week to days away from dying based on her condition when she arrived at the facility in mid to late January.  Photograph courtesy of Heather Toliver, “a modern-day Patron Saint for abused animals.”   

California’s Animal Cruelty Penal Code §597(a) makes it a crime to intentionally maim, mutilate, torture, wound, or kill a living animal. Violation of CPC §597(a) can result in three years in a state prison, a fine of up to $20,000, or both a prison term and a fine.

The penalty for abuse was much worse in Ancient Egypt, where killing a cat, even accidentally, was punished by death.

The White House Wall of Shame: Presidents with no Pets

Donald J. Trump, James K. Polk and Andrew Johnson did not have any official pets while in office. But Andrew Johnson reportedly left flour out at night in his bedroom for a family of mice.

The worst presidential pets in the history of the US goes to President John Quincy Adams’ First Lady, Louisa Catherine Adams. According to one of Adams’ diary entries, she kept several hundred silkworms that she raised herself for their silk. Silk is nice, but let’s face it: Silkworms make terrible pets. They are, after all, worms. And technically, they’re caterpillars, too.

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
— Mahatma Gandhi

It is much easier to show compassion to animals. They are never wicked.
— Haile Selassie

Millard Fillmore named his two horses after the surveyor Jeremiah Dixon and astronomer Charles Mason, who guided them both to the new land of America, and created the Mason-Dixon Line. The border marked the line between Maryland and Pennsylvania, which was significant during the War Between the States, as it is significant today, drawing a line between the politics of the Northern and Southern states.

Let’s close on a happy, nonpartisan note, which I did cross the line a couple of times, and listen to Mark Knopfler’s tribute to Mason and Dixon with his song, Sailing to Philadelphia, which includes the voice of James Taylor in a duet of the song.

Attention: T-Boy Readers, Friends and Families

We hope you enjoyed Presidents and Pets, Part I:  A T-Boy Odyssey Into Why They Loved One Another. Please consider sending us photographs of your own sacred pets, including those who passed, but will never be forgotten. Your photographs will be included in the T-Boy article: T-Boy Readers and Their Pets. We can also include your name, address and narrative about your life with your pet. But it’s up to you if you’d like to do that, and we promise to send you a proof to revise. Please send to **@tr**********.com , and we will be excited upon seeing them.  

Stay tuned for Presidents and Pets, Part II: A T-Boy Odyssey Into Why They Loved One Another

Abraham Lincoln & Fido, who once had the most popular dog name in the U.S; Plantation Farmer, Thomas Jefferson & Peanut Farmer, Jimmy Carter; Lessons learned by Marine Corp’s Louis Boitano, a man with a disdain for cowardly flag wavers, in particular for ones who never experienced a real battle; Reagan Rex’s White House dog house; and (How Much) is that Doggie in the Window.