United States presidential pets


have often kept pets while in office, or pets have been part of their families. Donald Trump is the first president since James K. Polk to not have a presidential pet while in office.

History of White House dogs

The first White House dog to receive regular newspaper coverage was Warren G. Harding's dog Laddie Boy.
Pets also featured on presidential elections. Herbert Hoover got a "Belgian Police Dog", King Tut, during his campaign and pictures of him with his new dog were sent all across the United States.
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 Scotch 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.
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 picking his two beagles, named Him and Her, up 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."

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.
PresidentPet
George Washington
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, male & female pair, gifted from Captain Zebulon Pike; deeming them "too dangerous & troublesome for me to keep", Jefferson gave them to Charles Willson Peale for his museum in Philadelphia
  • Caractacus – horse, named after Caratacus, a 1st-century British chieftain; offspring of Jefferson's mare Allycroker and a Godolphin Arabian named Young Fearnought
  • James Madison
  • Polly – Parrot, outlived both James and Dolley Madison
  • James Monroe
  • Spaniel – Belonged to youngest daughter, Maria Monroe
  • Sebastian – Siberian Husky
  • John Quincy Adams
  • Silkworms – First Lady Louisa Adams spun their silk.
  • 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 – grey parrot, learned to swear
  • 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
  • Briefly owned two tiger cubs given to him by Said bin Sultan, Sultan of Muscat and Oman before Congress forced him to donate the tigers to the zoo
  • William Henry Harrison
  • Sukey – Durham cow
  • Goat
  • John Tyler
  • Le Beau – Italian Greyhound
  • Johnny Ty – canary
  • the GeneralHorse
  • 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
  • Mason and Dixonponies
  • 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
  • Lara – Newfoundland
  • Punch – Toy Terrier
  • Eagle
  • Abraham Lincoln
  • 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
  • Fed white mice he found in his bedroom
  • Ulysses S. Grant
  • Butcher's Boy, Cincinnati, Egypt, Jeff Davis, 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
  • Dot – Cocker Spaniel
  • Hector – Newfoundland
  • Duke – English Mastiff
  • Grim – greyhound
  • Otis – Miniature Schnauzer
  • Juno and Shep – Hunting dogs
  • Jet – dog
  • Piccolomini – cat
  • Siam – First Siamese cat in the United States
  • Miss Pussy – Siamese cat
  • James A. Garfield
  • Kit – horse
  • Veto – Dog
  • Chester A. Arthur
  • Rabbit
  • Three horses
  • Grover Cleveland
  • Hector – Japanese poodle
  • Mockingbirds
  • Three Dachshunds
  • Benjamin Harrison
  • 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
  • Washington Post – Yellow-headed Mexican parrot; could whistle "Yankee Doodle"
  • Valeriano Weyler and Enrique DeLome – Angora kittens; named after Spanish general Valeriano Weyler and Spanish ambassador Enrique Dupuy de Lôme
  • Roosters
  • Theodore Roosevelt
  • Admiral Dewey, Bishop Doane, Dr. Johnson, Father O'Grady, Fighting Bob Evans – guinea pigs; namesakes: George Dewey, William Croswell Doane, and Robley D. Evans
  • Algonquin – "Calico pony", favored by Roosevelt's son Archie
  • Baron Spreckle – Hen, likely named after sugar baron Claus Spreckels
  • Bill the Lizard – lizard, brought from California and described as a "horned frog" ; likely named after Lewis Carroll's Bill the Lizard.
  • Blackjack – Manchester Terrier
  • Eli Yale – Hyacinth macaw Named after the British merchant
  • Emily Spinach – garter snake, so named by Roosevelt's daughter Alice because "it was as green as spinach and as thin as my Aunt Emily"
  • Fedelity – pony
  • Gem and Susan – dogs
  • Jack and Peter – Terriers
  • Jonathan Edwards – small black bear from West Virginia named after the religious leader, an ancestor of Mrs. Roosevelt; eventually sent to the Bronx Zoo
  • Jonathan – Piebald rat
  • Josiah – Badger During a railroad tour of the West, the president acquired two-week-old Josiah at a stop in Sharon Springs, Kansas
  • Manchu – Pekingese
  • Maude – Pig
  • Peter Rabbit – Rabbit; was given a "proper state" funeral Cf. Peter Rabbit.
  • Pete – Bull Terrier, exiled to Long Island "after chomping on one too many legs"
  • Rollo – Saint Bernard
  • Skip – mongrel
  • Sailor Boy – Chesapeake Bay Retriever
  • Tom Quartz and Slippers – Cats, Tom Quartz was named after a cat in a Mark Twain story.
  • Bill – laughing hyena, gift from Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia
  • Barn owl
  • One-legged rooster
  • 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 was a Holstein of considerable fame; she "went missing" for two days.
  • Woodrow Wilson
  • Davie – Airedale Terrier
  • Old Ike – Ram
  • Puffins – cat
  • Bruce – Bull Terrier
  • songbirds
  • Sheep, numbering 48 at its peak, the flock kept the White House lawn trimmed "in the most economical way"; the wool being sold to benefit the Red Cross
  • Warren G. Harding
  • Laddie Boy – Airedale Terrier
  • Old BoyBulldog
  • Petey – canary
  • Pete – Squirrel,
  • Calvin Coolidge
  • Rob Roy 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
  • Palo Alto – 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
  • Rebeccaraccoon, 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 Tuckcanaries, 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 from South America; said to be Mrs. Coolidge's favorite bird
  • Enoch – goose
  • Smoky – bobcat
  • Blacky and Tiger – 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 — 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
  • Billy Possum – A wild opossum that occupied Rebecca's vacant tree-house and was "adopted" by the Hoovers; temporarily filled in for a local high school's missing mascot
  • Caruso – A Roller canary
  • King Tut – Belgian Shepherd
  • Pat – German Shepherd
  • Big Ben and Sonnie – Fox Terriers
  • Glen – Scotch Collie
  • Yukonan – Canadian Eskimo Dog
  • Patrick – Irish Wolfhound
  • Eaglehurst Gillette – Setter
  • Weegie – Norwegian Elkhound
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt
  • Fala – Scottish Terrier
  • Major – German Shepherd Formerly a police dog from the New York State Police
  • Meggie – Scottish Terrier
  • Winks – Llewellyn Setter
  • Tiny – Old English Sheepdog
  • President – Great Dane
  • Blaze – Bullmastiff
  • 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
  • Mike – Irish Setter
  • Dwight D. Eisenhower
  • Gabby – parakeet
  • Heidi – Weimaraner
  • John F. Kennedy
  • Gaullie – poodle
  • Charlie – Welsh Terrier
  • Tom Kitten – cat
  • Robin – canary
  • Bluebell and Marybelle – parakeets
  • Ducks – JFK's daughter, five-year-old Caroline raised ducklings at the White House. Ongoing conflicts with their terrier Charlie prompted sending them to Rock Creek Park.
  • Macaroni – pony
  • Tex – bay Yucatán pony
  • Leprechaun – Connemara pony, a gift from President of Ireland, Éamon de Valera
  • Moe – Doberman Pinscher
  • Billie and Debbie – hamsters
  • Pushinka – dog
  • Shannon – Irish Cocker Spaniel
  • Wolf – Dog, mix of Irish Wolfhound and Schnauzer
  • Clipper – German shepherd
  • Butterfly, White Tips, Blackie, and Streaker – Offspring of Pushinka and Charlie
  • Zsa Zsa – rabbit
  • Sardar – horse
  • Lyndon B. Johnson
  • Him and Her – beagles
  • Edgar – beagle
  • Blanco – white collie
  • Freckles – beagle
  • Yuki – mongrel dog famous for "singing duets" with the President for White House guests
  • hamsters
  • lovebirds
  • Richard Nixon
  • Vicki – poodle
  • Pasha – terrier
  • King Timahoe – Irish Setter
  • Checkers – Cocker Spaniel
  • Gerald Ford
  • LibertyGolden Retriever
  • Lucky – dog*
  • Misty – Liberty's puppy, born in the White House
  • Shan – Siamese cat
  • Jimmy Carter
  • Grits – Border collie ; Given to his daughter Amy by her teacher, but quickly returned after snapping at several White House visitors
  • Lewis Brown – Afghan hound
  • Misty Malarky Ying Yang, daughter Amy Carter's pet – Siamese cat
  • Ronald Reagan
  • Lucky – Bouvier des Flandres
  • RexCavalier King Charles Spaniel.
  • Victory – Golden Retriever
  • Peggy – Irish Setter m
  • Taca – Siberian Husky
  • Fuzzy – Belgian sheepdog
  • Horses at Rancho del Cielo
  • Cleo and Sara - tortoiseshell cats at Rancho del Cielo
  • George H. W. Bush
  • MillieSpringer Spaniel.
  • Ranger – one of Millie's puppies
  • Bill Clinton
  • Socks – The Clintons' cat.
  • Buddy – Bill's chocolate Labrador retriever
  • George W. Bush
  • Spot "Spotty" Fetcher – female English Springer Spaniel named after Scott Fletcher; Puppy of Millie; Euthanized after suffering a series of strokes.
  • Barney – Scottish Terrier.
  • Miss Beazley – Scottish Terrier; Nicknamed "Beazley Weazley"; 2005 birthday gift from George to his wife.
  • India "Willie" – cat
  • Ofelia – Longhorn cow
  • Barack Obama
  • BoPortuguese Water Dog.
  • Sunny – Portuguese Water Dog.
  • Donald Trump
  • None
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