It isn’t easy being President. Whether it’s JFK facing down the Russians during the Cuban Missile Crisis or FDR facing down the Great Depression, the job has a little pressure. That must explain why most presidents have pets. When the times are tough, when Congress gets mean, when the pollsters tell you your popularity is plummeting, a guy needs the unconditional comfort of a loving dog or cat.
The first famed four-legged presidential companion was neither a cat nor a dog. It was a horse named Nelson that George Washington rode when he accepted Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown.
Abraham Lincoln had a floppy-eared yellow mutt named Fido, who was a fixture in Springfield for years. When Lincoln was elected President in 1860, he worried that the dog would not survive the trip and therefore left him in Illinois. But Lincoln allowed sons Tad and Willie to keep all sorts of creatures in the White House; including rabbits, horses, Jack the turkey (who received a presidential pardon from being Christmas dinner), and a pair of goats named Nanny and Nanko.
Benjamin Harrison had a First Goat as well. “Whiskers” used to pull the Harrison youngsters in a little wagon all over the White House lawn.
Perhaps the record for sheer number of First Pets was set by Teddy Roosevelt. Coming to Washington in 1901, Roosevelt brought guinea pigs named Admiral Dewey, Dr. Johnson, Bishop Doane, Fighting Bob Evans, and Father O’Grady, Maude the pig, Josiah the badger, a small bear named Jonathan Edwards, a lizard named Bill, a macaw, Baron Spreckle the hen, Peter the rabbit, and Algonquin the pony among a host of others. Dogs in the house included Sailor Boy, Skip, Pete, Jack, and a small black Pekingese named Manchu which Alice Roosevelt received as a gift from the last empress of China. Alice also had a pet garter snake that she named Emily Spinach (“because it was as green as spinach and as thin as my Aunt Emily”).
The first and probably most famous foray of presidential pets into politics came during a speech that Teddy’s nephew, FDR, gave during the campaign of 1944.
The pooch was “Murray the Outlaw of Falahill” named after a Scottish ancestor, a Scottish terrier who became “Fala” for short. Known as the most famous dog in the world, Fala went with the President absolutely everywhere: by train, boat or car. In fact, a rumor even spread that Fala had been left on one of the Aleutian Islands and the President had spent millions of taxpayer dollars sending a destroyer to retrieve him.
Speaking to the teamsters, Mr. Roosevelt said that he didn’t mind being criticized personally, and even his family expected to hear bad things about themselves. But, he said, Fala was livid as soon as he heard the charges of waste. “His Scotch soul was furious,” claimed the President.
The speech was a brilliant political maneuver, one imitated a few elections later by then-VP Richard Nixon with the “Checkers Speech.”
September 23, 1952, before a huge radio and TV audience, Mr. Nixon made a plea for sympathy, pointedly mentioning the cocker spaniel beloved by his children. It worked: the speech was a hit, and Mr. Nixon was allowed to remain on the ticket with Ike.
Lyndon Johnson made news with his beagles. The Texan lifted his dogs by the ears in front of the press. When the dogs yelped, Mr. Johnson claimed they enjoyed it. For many, the act became a symbol of an out-of-touch, cruel administration.
In the recent times, presidential pets have grown almost as popular as their human counterparts. Socks, the Clintons’ cat used to get almost as much mail as the President and First Lady, and the cat’s mail was often much nicer.
No White House hound is more famous, or more accomplished than Millie, the presidential pooch who penned a New York Times bestseller‹and who also happens to be the mother of a current White House resident: 13-year-old English springer spaniel Spot. The Bush family obviously likes to keep things in the family. The brood also includes a young Scottish terrier named Barney who President Bush once jokingly referred to as, “The son I never had.”
Alas, for all the examples of beloved pets, some aren’t so popular. One was even kicked out of office. It happened during the first term of the Reagan presidency. Mrs. Reagan had a Bouvier des Flandres, Lucky, who was famously photographed dragging the President over the White House lawn towards Margaret Thatcher.
The loveable, but unruly dog was summarily retired to the California ranch. He was replaced by Rex, a King Charles spaniel, who knew how to act around the Commander in Chief and was given plum White House digs.
You can’t blame the Reagans for making the change. The image was all wrong. After all, if a man can’t control his own dog, how can he control the country?
Let’s ofcourse celebrate Sunny, the perfect little sister of Bo – President Obama’s Portuguese water dogs who are so full of energy and very affectionate! Why the name Sunny – the First Family picked her name because it fit her cheerful personality ( or to bring a bright light to the White House?)!
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