WHITE HOUSE PETS
Obama's girls named their puppy,' Bo' in 2009
Vice President Joe Biden has a new GSD puppy... no name
yet.. congrats... (Sept. 2009)
WASHINGTON – Bo? No jest. The
first family has settled on a first pet — a
6-month-old Portuguese water dog that the Obama
girls are naming Bo. The selection was one of the
White House's most tightly kept secrets.
President
Barack Obama's daughters, 10-year-old Malia
and 7-year-old Sasha, picked a black and white pup,
a
White House official speaking on the
condition of anonymity told The Associated Press
Saturday night. The dog is a gift from
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who owns
several Portuguese water dogs himself. "We
couldn't
be happier to see the joy that Bo is bringing to
Malia and Sasha," Kennedy said in a
statement. "We love our Portuguese water dogs and
know that the girls — and their parents — will love
theirs, too."
The
Washington Post reported in its online
editions
Saturday night that Obama's daughters chose
the name Bo for the pup because
first lady Michelle Obama's father was
nicknamed Diddley. The name for the dog was an
apparent reference to the singer "Bo" Diddley.
White House aides told the AP that the office
of the
first lady arranged an exclusive deal on the
dog
story with the Post. The officials, who
demanded anonymity because of the deal with the Post
on exclusive details, said the dog was not in the
White House as of Saturday evening. Throughout
the day Saturday, celebrity Web sites and bloggers
were abuzz with rumors of the first family's
selection of a Portuguese water dog; one site even
claimed it had pictures of the future first pet. The
president had embraced the frenzy: "Oh, man, now,
that's top secret," Obama joked Friday to reporters.
Obama promised his daughters a puppy during the
campaign. "This is Washington. That was a campaign
promise," Obama said when he appeared on
Jay
Leno's talk show last month, as the audience
roared with laughter. "No, I'm teasing. The dog will
be there shortly." The president and first lady had
said their choice was down to either a Portuguese
water dog or a Labradoodle because they were
considered good pets for children who have allergies,
as Malia does.
President Bush's dog........
A
Dog in the Hand is Worth Bush in the White House
The
White House has housed more pets than people over the years.
Here's
a look at the nation's
pet
loving Presidents
and the nation's First Pets, from George Washington
to
George W. Bush's
Scottish
Terrier,
"Barney" & Springer Spaniel, "Spot."
U.S.
President George W. Bush greets a Black Lab searcher dog
after
visiting the site of the World Trade Center
attack in New York City.
(Photo:
Sep 14, 2001, Reuters / Win McNamee)
***************
The
new White House puppy,
Miss Beazley, ran around with Barney
on the South Lawn of the White House
Jan. 6, 2005. (AFP Photo)
<>President
Bush gave the dog to his wife for her 58th birthday in November, but
the
10-week-old puppy had to wait to move into the White House.
Although Scottish terriers are often aggressive
with other dogs, there
appeared to be no animosity between Miss Beazley and the older first
dog, Barney,
as the Bushes showed the puppy off to TV cameras on the
South Lawn.
The 2 dogs are related, Barney's half brother is Ms.
Beazley's father.
Presidential
Pets
|
1789 George Washington |
|
| 1801 Thomas Jefferson | mockingbird |
| 1809 James Madison | green parrot |
| 1817 James Monroe | Spaniel dog (no name) |
| 1825 John Quincy Adams | alligator, silkworms |
| 1829 Andrew Jackson | 5 horses |
| 1837 Martin Van Buren | 2 tiger cubs |
| 1841 William H. Harrison | goat, cow |
| 1841 John Tyler | horse |
| 1849 Zachary Taylor | horse |
| 1861 Abraham Lincoln | pig,
rabbit, 3 goats, turkey, horses, cats,
2 dogs (Jip, Fido) |
| 1865 Andrew Johnson | mice |
| 1869 Ulysses S. Grant | 10 horses, gamecocks, parrot, at least 1 dog (Faithful), a Newfoundland) |
| 1877 Rutherford Hayes | cows, horses, goats and dogs (no names) |
| 1881 James Garfield | horse (no name) |
| 1885 Grover Cleveland | canaries, mockingbirds, Japanese Poodle (no name) |
| 1889 Benjamin Harrison | goat, dogs (no names) |
| 1897 William McKinley | parrot (no name) |
| 1901 Theodore Roosevelt | 13 horses, 5 Guinea pigs, snakes, 2 cats, 2 parrots, 5 bears, Pit-bull Terrier (Pete), Chesapeake retriever (Sailor Boy), Terrier (Jack), Mutt (Skip), Spaniel (Manchu), lion, hyena, wildcat, coyote, zebra, barn owl, lizards, rats, roosters, raccoon, horned toad-(Bill) |
| 1909 William Taft | cow |
| 1913 Woodrow Wilson | ram,
sheep "If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience." - Woodrow Wilson |
| 1921 Warren Harding | horse, Airedale (Old Boy), canaries |
| 1923 Calvin Coolidge | Terrier
(Peter Pan),
Airedale (Lady Buck/Paul Pry),
2 White Collies (Oshkosh/Rob Roy and Prudence Primm), Shetland Sheepdog (Calamity Jane), 2 Chows (Tiny Tim and Blackberry), Brown Collie (Ruby Rough), Yellow Collie (Bessie), Bulldog (Boston Beans), Police Dog (King Kole), Bird Dog (Palo Alto), goose, thrush, 3 canaries, mockingbird, cat, bobcat, alley cat, 2 raccoons, donkey, lion cubs, wallaby, pygmy hippo, bear |
| 1929 Herbert Hoover | 2 Police Dogs (King Tut and Pat), 2 Fox Terriers (Big Ben and Sonnie), Scotch Collie (Glen), Eskimo Dog (Yukon), Wolfhound (Patrick), Setter (Eaglehurst Gillette), Elkhound (Weejie) |
| 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt | German Shepherd (Major), 2 Scotch Terriers (Meggie & Fala), Llewellyn Setter (Winks), English Sheep- dog (Tiny), Great Dane (President), Mastiff (Blaze) |
| 1945
Harry
S. Truman
|
Mutt
(Feller),
Irish
Setter (Mike)
"Children
and dogs are as necessary to the welfare of the country as Wall Street
and the railroads." - Harry S. Truman |
| 1953 Dwight D. Eisenhower | Weimaraner (Heidi) |
| 1961 John F. Kennedy | canary,
2 parakeets, 4 horses, 2 hamsters, rabbit, cat, Welsh Terrier (Charlie),
8 dogs (Pushinka, Shannon,
Wolf, Clipper, Butterfly, White Tips, Blackie & Streaker) |
| 1963 Lyndon B. Johnson | hamsters, lovebirds, Mutt (Yuki), 4 Beagles (Beagle, Little Beagle, Him and Her), White Collie (Blanco) |
| 1969 Richard Nixon | Spaniel
(Checkers),
Irish
Setter (King Timahoe),
Terrier (Pasha), Poodle (Vicky) |
| 1974 Gerald Ford | Siamese cat, Golden Retriever (Liberty) |
| 1977 Jimmy Carter | Siamese cat,(Grits)the dog |
| 1981 Ronald Reagan | Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (Rex), Bouvier des Flandres (Lucky), more dogs and horses |
| 1989 George Bush | Springer Spaniel (Millie) and her puppy (Ranger) & cat " |
| 1992 Bill Clinton | (Socks) the cat, (Buddy) the dog |
| 2000 George W. Bush | Scottish
Terrier (Barney),
Springer Spaniel (Spot),
2 cats (Spot died 2004) Miss Beasley arrived 2005. |