More often than not, presidential pets have been dogs and cats. But many less traditional pets have also lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, their quantity and variety depending on each administration, said Matthew Costello, a senior historian for the White House Historical Association.“If you’re talking about which White House was quite literally a zoo, it was probably Theodore Roosevelt’s White House,” Costello said. “Between the six children that he brought with him to the White House and the assortment of pets – the Roosevelts, they just loved animals .”
Pets at the White House have reflected the occupants’ personalities, he said, and the animals sometimes played a prominent role in an administration’s image.“It helps humanise the president a little bit more,” Costello said. “It’s something that’s relatable to most people. Most people have a pet or have had a pet at some point in their life.”Although the list of White House pets is lengthy, according to the Presidential Pet Museum, an organisation founded to preserve information and artefacts related to presidential pets, the history is also littered with unverified tales and missing details. Still, records clearly show many strange pets.Teach your dog to file his or her own nails by attaching sandpaper to a piece of wood.
Theodore Roosevelt’s one-legged pet rooster (Library of Congress)(President Dwight Eisenhower also received an unusual gift in 1959, when prime minister Fulbert Youlou of the Republic of Congo gave him a baby elephant named Dzimbo. The president, later trying to feed the elephant, compared it to his grandchildren: “He doesn’t like carrots.” Dzimbo eventually moved to Washington Zoo.)Move over Rover! 45% of dogs sleep in their owner’s bed (we’re pretty sure a large percentage also hog the blankets!)
Sheep graze the White House lawn in 1919
(Library of Congress)
A flock of sheep for the White House
In an effort to keep costs low and to conserve human resources during the First World War, a flock of sheep was brought to the White House to keep the grass neat, according to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum. The flock arrived at the White House in 1918 from Maryland and grazed on the property for at least two years. At some point the flock was sheared, and 2lbs of wool was given to each state, where it was auctioned off and ended up raising about $52,000 for the Red Cross.
Grace Coolidge and Rebecca the racoon in 1927( Library of Congress)
Although Rebecca had taken a place in the spotlight, even attracting attention at the annual Easter Egg Roll in 1927, she sometimes caused problems. In 1927, she fled the Coolidge residence in South Dakota, running away from “her attendants in the dead of night” and climbing a tall tree, “which she declines to descend in spite of all entreaties”, the Times reported. She was eventually donated to Rock Creek Zoo.Billy the opossumPresident Herbert Hoover had several dogs during his tenure at the White House, from 1929 to 1933, but few appeared to attract as much attention as Billy, a wild opossum the family adopted after he strayed onto the property, according to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.INTERESTING FACT ABOUT YOUR PET: There are approximately 600 million dogs in the world. It is estimated that nearly 400M of those dogs are strays.
The family kept the opossum in a pen that had been built for the Coolidge family’s raccoon, Rebecca. In 1929, Billy became the subject of news coverage after Hoover lent him to a nearby high school after its mascot, also an opossum, had disappeared, according to the Library of Congress.Similarly, before Hoover moved into the White House, president Benjamin Harrison had two opossums during his tenure, from 1889 to 1893, which he named Mr Reciprocity and Mr Protection, after the Republican platform at the time.
INTERESTING FACT ABOUT YOUR PET: The United States has the highest pet dog population in the world. Approximately 75.8 million in fact.
John F Kennedy and his children, John and Caroline, play with pony Macaroni in 1962(Getty)
Macaroni and Tex, a pony given to Caroline by vice president Lyndon B Johnson in 1961, would stay at a nearby Kennedy property but were often on the White House grounds, Costello said. A third pony, Leprechaun, was given to the family by Irish leaders.