Cuddle Up With This Quiz on Presidential Pets

Many pets came through the White House during George W. Bush’s eight-year term, including an energetic orange cat named Ernie. Ernie got his name because much like Ernest Hemingway’s pet cats, he had six toes on each foot. Ernie was found trespassing on White House property by the Bushes’ dog, and the family took him in — until he was kicked out in 2001 for tearing up furniture.

During the Obama family’s time in the White House, they were joined by two Portuguese water dogs named Bo and Sunny. Bo was a campaign promise President Barack Obama fulfilled to his family: He told his daughters Sasha and Malia that after the election, win or lose, they would get a dog, and Bo joined the family in 2009.

Lyndon B. Johnson had a sense of humor when it came to naming his dogs. He had two beagles, simply named Him and Her. He also had another dog whom he called Edgar, but whose official given name was J. Edgar, after J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director who gave the beagle to the Johnsons. At the end of Johnson’s term, J. Edgar the dog left the White House and moved back to Texas with the family.

In 1947, President Harry S. Truman was given a 5-week-old puppy named Feller, who arrived at the White House in a crate. Three years later, Truman gave the dog away to his personal doctor. The dog had been given to Truman by a supporter in Missouri, and Truman’s re-gifting of Feller led to thousands of angry letters from dog lovers, as well as a new nickname for the pup: “the Unwanted Dog.”

Theodore Roosevelt is known for being one of the most adventurous and outdoorsy U.S. Presidents, and he had a large and varied collection of animals. These included dogs, cats, a badger, a pony, a macaw, a piebald rat, a garter snake, 12 horses, five guinea pigs, lizards, roosters, an owl, a flying squirrel, a raccoon, a coyote, a lion, a hyena, a zebra, and five bears. However, there is no record of Roosevelt owning a turtle.

During James Buchanan’s presidency, a friend who lived in San Francisco gave him the very patriotic gift of two eagles. Unsurprisingly, the eagles weren’t a great fit for life in the White House, so Buchanan sent them to his home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The eagles had cages on the back porch of the house, and would venture out each day before returning at night.

Zebulon Pike was one of the most well-known early explorers of the Louisiana Territory, and he gave a pretty wild gift to Thomas Jefferson in 1807: two baby grizzly bears. The bears arrived along with a letter from Pike, saying he purchased the male and female cubs from an Indigenous man, shortly after being arrested and released by Spanish authorities.

Siamese cats were regal pets once owned by the royalty of Siam (current-day Thailand), where they lived within the palace walls and guarded Buddhist temples. In 1878, a U.S. diplomat at a consulate in Bangkok learned the Hayes family was fond of cats and shipped a Siamese cat to the White House, claiming it was the first attempt to send the foreign feline to America.

Several Presidents brought pet parrots to the White House, but Andrew Jackson’s bird Polly could speak and even knew a few unsavory words. The reverend who presided at Jackson’s funeral wrote that the parrot “commenced swearing so loud and long as to disturb the people and had to be carried from the house.”

In 1926, a constituent from Mississippi sent a live raccoon to the White House for the Coolidge family’s Thanksgiving dinner. President Coolidge was not interested in eating raccoon, so instead the family named her Rebecca and added her to their menagerie of pets. The Coolidges walked Rebecca on a leash and built a treehouse for her on the White House lawn.

In 1863, the Lincolns were given a live turkey for Christmas, but President Abraham Lincoln’s son Tad took a liking to the bird (named Jack) and trained it to follow him around the White House grounds. When the holiday came, the President gave in and wrote Jack a reprieve. Tad kept the pet turkey for another year.

Liberty was just six months old when she joined the Fords at the White House in the fall of 1974, and she quickly became a fixture in the Oval Office. President Ford reportedly trained Liberty to respond to a special signal, and if he wanted to end a meeting, Liberty would approach the visitor with a wagging tail to provide a natural break.

During Martin Van Buren’s time in office (1837-1841), a diplomat from Oman sent a ship full of gifts as a show of friendship to the President, including pearls, spices, a gold sword, two stallions, and two tiger cubs. Van Buren wanted to keep the impressive cats, but Congress insisted that the Constitution prevented it, so the tigers were donated to the zoo.

Veto did not have a chance to live in the White House, due in part to President Garfield’s abbreviated term in office. But the large black Newfoundland became famous during Garfield’s presidential campaign in 1880. As the candidate delivered speeches from the porch of his Ohio farm, Veto greeted people with an infectious enthusiasm.

The Clintons had two pets: a chocolate Labrador retriever named Buddy, and a black-and-white cat named Socks who was adopted a few years before Bill Clinton became President in 1993. Socks was quite popular during his time at the White House. At one point, a lawmaker demanded an investigation into the cost of responding to the many fan letters the cat received from kids across the country.

“The Checkers Speech” is one of President Richard Nixon’s most famous speeches, and it got its name from the dog he referred to in a joke. In the speech, Nixon denied charges that he used $18,000 in political contributions for personal expenses, but he admitted that Checkers the dog was a political gift, and that he would be keeping the dog.

John F. Kennedy’s family had many pets, including three horses, a half-dozen dogs, a cat, several birds, two hamsters, and a rabbit named Zsa Zsa. The white rabbit was gifted to the Kennedys in 1961 by a Pennsylvania magician, who took the rabbit out of a hat to place her in the White House.

In order to save on manpower during World War I, President Wilson added a flock of sheep to graze on the White House lawn. When the sheep were sheared, the wool was given to each state’s governor to auction off. The proceeds, an estimated $52,000, were donated to the Red Cross War Fund.

Murray the Outlaw of Falahill, known as Fala for short, was a black Scottish terrier and the loyal companion of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A favorite with the press, he was even featured in a documentary about a typical day at the White House. Fala is buried next to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt in Hyde Park, New York.

The family dog during the Carters’ time in the White House was a springer spaniel with an appropriately Southern name: Grits. The puppy was born the day Jimmy Carter won the presidential election, and the name referenced the campaign catchphrase “Grits and Fitz,” referring to the Georgian candidate and his running mate, Walter “Fritz” Mondale.