pensiveHarry Truman once famously said "if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." I was reminded of that when I saw the picture of Herbert Hoover and his dog King Tut, posted in an entry earlier this month (and reposted below). It seems as if almost every president took Truman's advice, even long before he gave it. George Washington bred foxhounds, and he returned British General William Howe's dog, a POW, under a flag of truce. The first President Bush had a spaniel named Millie, whose book outsold her master's own autobiography.
Canines in the oval office is even the subject of a book entitled First Dogs: American Presidents and Their Best Friends, by Roy Rowan and Brooke Janis, published in 2009. According to the authors, Presidents have owned every manner of canine from wolfhounds to beagles, Airedales to poodles, plus a generous helping of affectionate mutts.
In some cases, there has been a downside. For example, Thomas Jefferson's briards liked to dine on his sheep, and Lyndon Johnson didn't win any friends among animal lovers when he held his beagles Him and Her by the ears. But in other cases dogs have improved the image of the President they served. FDR had his inseparable companion, Fala; Richard Nixon probably saved his Vice Presidential candidacy and possibly his political future, with his impassioned speech about his wife's cloth coat and his cocker spaniel, Checkers. Lyndon Johnson was known to yowl duets with Yuki, a stray found by his daughter Lucy.
So, this has inspired me to include a few photos of famous oval office pooches, which I've placed behind a cut for your own private presidential pet show.
1. It is said that George Washington bred American foxhounds. He listed more than 30 hounds in his journals, including ones named Drunkard, Tipler and Tipsy.
2. When he lived in Springfield, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln kept a frontier dog named Fido, who was a mid-sized, yellow-colored dog that looked something like a small Labrador retriever. Fido was a cur. Curs were not mongrels, they were multi-purpose farm dogs used for hunting and herding. Fido often accompanied Lincoln in Springfield, and it is said that he often carried a newspaper in his mouth. When Lincoln was elected president in 1860, he decided to leave Fido with friends in Springfield.
3. Laddie Boy (born July 26, 1920, died January 23, 1929) was an Airedale Terrier owned by President Warren G. Harding. Laddie Boy was a celebrity during the Harding administration. The dog had his own hand carved chair to sit in during cabinet meetings and the White House held birthday parties for him. Other neighborhood dogs were invited to join, and staff served them dog biscuit cake. Newspapers published mock interviews with the dog. It is said that Laddie Boy howled constantly the three days prior to the President's death at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. In memory of President Harding and honoring his former employment as a paperboy, newsboys collected 19,134 pennies to be remelted and sculpted into a statue of Laddie Boy. The statue was completed in 1927 and was presented to the Smithsonian Institution where it currently resides. In the summer of 2012, Laddie Boy's collar was stolen from the Harding Home and Museum.
4. Calvin and Grace Coolidge were animal lovers. Some of their animals included a donkey named Ebeneezer, a pygmy hippo named Billy, a wallaby, a bobcat, canaries and a pair of raccoons named Rebecca and Horace. Perhaps the most famous Coolidge pet was Rob Roy, a white collie immortalized in a portrait of the first lady that hangs in the White House China Room. Coolidge wrote this about Rob Roy in his autobiography: “He was a stately companion of great courage and fidelity. He loved to bark from the second-story windows and around the South Grounds. Nights he remained in my room and afternoons went with me to the office. His especial delight was to ride with me in the boats when I went fishing. So although I know he would bark for joy as the grim boatman ferried him across the dark waters of the Styx, yet his going left me lonely on the hither shore.”
5. Herbert Hoover had a Belgian Sheppard named King Tut. At the White House, King Tut patrolled the perimeter of the property’s fences nightly, and he seemed genuinely worried about protecting his master. But as if Hoover didn't have enough bad luck in office, poor King Tut encountered health problems, to the point that the dog eventually stopped eating. Hoover sent him to a quiet home away from the hustle and bustle of the White House in the hopes that he would recover. King Tut’s health did not improve, and it is said that the poor dog “worried himself to death.” King Tut died in late 1929, at age 8, after having “gradually faded away,” according to an article in the New York Times.
6. Fala (born April 7, 1940, died April 5, 1952) was a Scottish Terrier who belonged to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He is probably the most famous presidential pet. Given to the Roosevelts by a cousin, Fala knew how to perform tricks and his White House antics were widely covered in the media. Fala survived Roosevelt by seven years and was buried alongside him. A statue of him alongside Roosevelt is prominently featured in Washington, D.C.'s Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. While campaigning in the 1944 presidential election at a campaign dinner in Washington, D.C., Roosevelt made a famous speech called the "Fala Speech" in which attacked Republican opponents in Congress, among other things for their false charge that he had accidentally left Fala behind on the Aleutian Islands while on tour there and had sent a U.S. Navy destroyer to retrieve him at an exorbitant cost to the taxpayers. FDR said:
These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala. Well, of course, I don't resent attacks, and my family don't resent attacks, but Fala does resent them. You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I'd left him behind on an Aleutian island and had sent a destroyer back to find him — at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three, or eight or twenty million dollars — his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since. I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself. But I think I have a right to resent, to object, to libelous statements about my dog!
7. With two small children in the White House, one would expect John F. Kennedy to come with dogs in tow. Here is the Kennedy family with Shannon, Clipper, Charlie and Wolf. The Kennedys built a special play area near the West Wing for their children and the family pets. Kennedy was the first President to request that his dogs come out to meet the presidential helicopter when he arrived at the White House.
8. Here President Lyndon B Johnson holds his dog 'Her' by the ears as White House visitors look on. To the left is President Johnson's other dog, 'Him'. This picture, taken on April 27, 1964, raised criticism from dog lovers.
9. On September 23, 1952 Republican vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon gave a nationally televised speech to respond to accusations of improprieties relating to a fund established by his backers to reimburse him for his political expenses. During the speech, he stated that regardless of what anyone said, he intended to keep one gift: a black-and-white dog who had been named Checkers by the Nixon children. Checkers never made it to the White House, as she died in 1964. After Nixon's election to the presidency, he brought with him a poodle named Vicky, a terrier named Pasha and an Irish setter named King Timahoe.
10. Gerald Ford's dog Liberty was formally named Honor's Foxfire Liberty Hume. She was a Golden Retriever who was born February 8, 1974 and given to the president as an 8-month-old puppy by his daughter Susan Ford and White House photographer David Hume Kennerly in the fall of 1974. The breeder of the dark gold pup was Avis Friberg of Mount Vernon, Washington. Liberty was frequently photographed with Ford in the Oval Office, in the swimming pool at Camp David and on the South Lawn of the White House. She also had a litter of pups in the White House on September 14, 1975, one of which – Misty – was kept by Ford. Photographs of Liberty were autographed with a rubber stamp of her paw print. It is said that if Ford wanted to end a conversation in the Oval Office he would signal Liberty and she would go to the guest wagging her tail creating a natural break. Poor Liberty was mercilessly parodied by comedian Chevy Chase on Saturday Night Live sketches in which she was depicted as a stuffed prop.
11. Rex (born December 16, 1984, died August 31, 1998) was a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel owned by Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy during his term as President of the United States. Rex had belonged as a puppy to conservative commentator William F. Buckley, Jr. One of Rex's first acts that week was helping to throw the switch that lit the National Christmas Tree. Rex took a disliking to the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House. Thought to possibly be haunted by the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, the dog would refuse to enter the room and sometimes would stand outside it and bark through the doorway.
12. Mildred Kerr Bush, better known as "Millie" (born January 12, 1985, died May 19, 1997) was the pet English Springer Spaniel of Barbara and George H. W. Bush. She was mentioned by Bush in a speech during his 1992 bid for re-election, when he said “My dog Millie knows more about foreign affairs than these two bozos” in reference to opposition candidates Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Millie is credited as the author of Millie's Book: As Dictated to Barbara Bush which reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller nonfiction list In 1989, Millie gave birth to a litter of six puppies. Millie made also a cameo appearance in The Simpsons episode "Two Bad Neighbors" in a scene where the former President Bush is jogging with some of his new neighbors. Millie died of pneumonia in 1997 at age 12. A dog park in Houston, Texas is named after her.
13. Buddy (born August 7, 1997, died January 2, 2002), was a male chocolate-colored Labrador Retriever, was one of two pets owned by Bill Clinton while he was President of the United States. The Clintons' other pet was a cat named Socks. The Clintons acquired Buddy as a 3-month-old puppy from Caroline County, Maryland in December 1997. Socks didn't get along with the frisky Buddy, so the White House had to keep the two in separate quarters. When the Clintons moved to their smaller home in New York, Socks was left under the care of Bill Clinton's secretary, Betty Currie. Poor Buddy was killed by a car while chasing a contractor who had left the Clinton home in Chappaqua, New York, on January 2, 2002. The Clintons were not home at the time and Buddy was being watched by Secret Service agents. The agents rushed Buddy to an animal hospital where he was pronounced dead. In 2005, Clinton acquired another chocolate Lab whom he named Seamus.
14. Barney Bush (born September 30, 2000, died February 1, 2013) was a Scottish Terrier owned by President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush. Barney had his own official web page which redirected to an extension of the White House website. Barney was criticized by Russian President Vladimir Putin who feels a world leader should own large robust dogs, not smaller breeds such as the Scottish Terrier. Barney could be a biter. On November 6, 2008, Barney bit Reuters news reporter Jon Decker's finger. Barney also bit Boston Celtics public relations director Heather Walker on the wrist on September 19, 2008 breaking the skin and drawing blood. Poor Barney died of lymphoma. On February 1, 2013, Bush posted this to his Facebook page, Statement by President George W. Bush on the passing of Barney Bush:
Laura and I are sad to announce that our Scottish Terrier, Barney, has passed away. The little fellow had been suffering from lymphoma and after twelve and a half years of life, his body could not fight off the illness. Barney and I enjoyed the outdoors. He loved to accompany me when I fished for bass at the ranch. He was a fierce armadillo hunter. At Camp David, his favorite activity was chasing golf balls on the chipping green. Barney guarded the South Lawn entrance of the White House as if he were a Secret Service agent. He wandered the halls of the West Wing looking for treats from his many friends. He starred in Barney Cam and gave the American people Christmas tours of the White House. Barney greeted Queens, Heads of State, and Prime Ministers. He was always polite and never jumped in their laps. Barney was by my side during our eight years in the White House. He never discussed politics and was always a faithful friend. Laura and I will miss our pal.
14. The present "First Dog" is Bo, a Portuguese Water Dog who was born on October 9, 2008. (Comedian Stephen Colbert quipped, "what, they were too good to get an American Water Dog?") Bo was a gift from Senator Edward Kennedy and his wife Victoria. The Obama daughters Malia and Sasha Obama named the dog Bo because they have cousins with a cat of the same name. At his first press conference as President-elect, Obama was asked by reporters as to what kind of dog the family was looking to get. He replied, "Our preference would be to get a shelter dog, but, obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts. Malia is allergic, so it has to be hypoallergenic. There are a number of breeds that are hypoallergenic."
15. Finally, this is Abby. She was never invited to the White House, but she was the official
potus_geeks dog. She would sit next to me when I composed many of these entries. I would blame any typos (among other things) on her. Abby left us one year ago today, and we miss her very much.