November 15, 2003
Nov. 2003 --
http://www.presidentialpetmuseum.com/whitehousepets-2.htm - Do you know which U.S. presidents owned sheep, goats and sheepdogs? Or alligators, cows and canaries? Answers to these and other presidential pet-oriented questions can be found at
www.presidentialpetmuseum.com -- a Web site devoted exclusively to White House pets --
Just a few of the fun listings of presidents and their pets include:
- John Adams (1797-1801) - a horse named Cleopatra, which prompted the building of the White House?s first stables.
- John Quincy Adams (1825-1829) - an alligator given to him by the Marquis de Lafayette.
- Martin Van Buren (1837-1841) - a pair of tiger cubs given to him by the Sultan of Oman, which Congress bade him to send to the zoo.
- William Henry Harrison (1841) - a billy goat and a Durham cow.
- Andrew Johnson (1865-1869) ? mice, for which he left out flour.
- Rutherford Hayes (1877-1881) ? Pedigreed Jersey cows, the first Siamese kitten to reach America, one goat and Shepherd dogs Hector and Nellie.
- James Garfield (1881-1885) ? a dog named Veto.
- Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) ? lion, hyena, wildcat, coyote, zebra, barn owl, raccoon, horses, dogs, cats, snakes, lizards, rats, roosters, two parrots, five bears and five guinea pigs (Dewey Senior, Dewey Junior, Bob Evans, Bishop Doan and Father O?Grady.)
- William Taft (1909-1913) ? Pauline, the last cow at the White House.
- Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) ? sheep, including Old Ike (the ?tobacco-chewing ram.?)
- Calvin and Grace Coolidge (1923-1929) - a mockingbird, canaries, cats, raccoons, bear, pigmy hippo, wallaby, donkey Ebenezer, bobcat Smokey and sheepdog Calamity Jane.
- Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) - Feller, ?the unwanted dog.?
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