Presidential Pets

We are celebrating President’s Day this week! As many of you may know almost all of our presidents have had house pets.  What you may not know is some of the past White House pets are not your average  “house pets.”  Take a look at some of the past presidential pets the White House has housed. From your common house dog to animals such as lions, tigers and bears! Oh my! 

One of the founding fathers and our first elected president of the United States was indeed a pet owner. Though Mr. George Washington was a resident of Virginia during his entire presidency he did not live in The White House. He was the only president who would not reside there. Though he played a major role in the design of the White House it would not be completed until after his death. Living outside of the White House Mr. George Washington housed pets including horses, 36 hounds, and Polly the parrot. (Which belonged to Mrs. Martha Washington)

John Quincy Adams our 6th president owned an alligator and silkworms!  Wait there’s more! The 26th president Mr. Theodore Roosevelt (like some of the presidents before him) housed dogs and owned horses, but he also had rats, a parrot, bears, a zebra, hyena, a coyote, a lion and a one-legged rooster. His daughter Alice  had a garter snake named Emily Spinach. What a name! What a pet! What a house!

Here’s a quick look at some of the other interesting past first pets of the White House.

Calvin Coolidge owned a Terrier, Airedale, sheepdog, bulldog, shepherd, collies, chows, canaries, cats, raccoons, a donkey, mockingbird, antelope, bear, wallaby, pygmy hippo, some lion cubs thrush, a goose and a bobcat

James Buchanan owned a Newfoundland, an eagle and an elephant.

Benjamin Harrison owned dogs, a goat, and an opossum

Only three of the 44 presidents did not own pets; Mr. Millard Fillmore, Mr. Franklin Pierce, and Mr. Chester Alan Arthur.

If you were president what would your First Pet be?