Leader of the Pack
White House pets can be as fascinating to Americans as the President
Barney, President Bush's five-year-old Scottish Terrier, is seen on the South Lawn of the White House. (Photo: ©Charles Dharapak/AP Images)
Barack Obama isn't the only Obama making tough decisions.
While the President-elect selects his White House staff and members of his Cabinet, his daughters, Sasha and Malia, are weighing the pros and cons of different dog breeds.
"The girls requested when we got in this race that win or lose, we get a dog," Michelle Obama told Scholastic News in January. "So no matter what, we will be welcoming a four-legged friend to our house."
During the President-elect's historic victory speech on Tuesday, their father remembered that promise.
"Sasha and Malia, I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House," President-elect Obama announced to the world.
Whatever type of puppy Sasha and Malia pick, it will be a part of a long tradition of White House pets. Everything from snakes and badgers to ponies and bears have taken up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue alongside the President of the United States and his family.
Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President, kept his pet raccoon on a leash. Warren G. Harding had a pen of turkeys. William Howard Taft parked more than cars in the White House garage—he kept his dairy cow in there too.
John Quincy Adams, the sixth President, had a pet alligator. But he wasn't the only President to have one! Herbert Hoover's son, Allan, had two pet alligators, and they were sometimes allowed to roam around the White House.
Bears have also been popular at the White House. Thomas Jefferson kept two grizzlies in a cage on the South Lawn, while Theodore Roosevelt had a black bear. Roosevelt's interest in bears is actually what led to the creation of the toy teddy bear.
TR had other pets, too. He and his six children loved animals, and they filled the White House with them. They had dogs, cats, squirrels, raccoons, rabbits, guinea pigs, a badger, a rat, a parrot, and a green garter snake. But the Roosevelt kids' favorite pet was their pony named Algonquin.
President John F. Kennedy and his children followed Roosevelt's example and brought a number of pets with them to the White House. The Kennedys had dogs, a cat, three birds, two hamsters, a rabbit, and three ponies. One of those ponies, Macaroni, was a gift from Vice President Lyndon Johnson to Kennedy's daughter, Caroline. It was so popular that kids from across the country sent it letters.
President George W. Bush's dogs, Barney and Miss Beazley, also get a lot of attention from American children. Barney, in fact, is something of an Internet celebrity. He has his own Web page on the White House Web site; he's the star of many videos about life in the White House, and he even answers the questions kids ask him (usually by barking)!
Sasha and Malia Obama's new puppy will be the latest pet to wander the halls of the most famous home in America when the Obamas move into the White House on January 20, 2009. Whatever breed of puppy Sasha and Malia choose, it will surely join Macaroni and Barney as one of the most popular White House pets.
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK
Read today’s story and answer the following question.
 | What kind of dog do you think the Obamas should get when they move into the White House? Why? Tell us what you think on the Scholastic News Online Blog! | |
Scholastic Kid Reporters covered Election Day from their home states across the country. Check out their coverage of Election 2008 at here.
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