Pomp, Circumstance, Fur: A Quiz on Presidential Pets (Published 2016) (2025)

The New York Times

Politics |Pomp, Circumstance, Fur: A Quiz on Presidential Pets
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Politics

By JENNIFER A. KINGSON

Can you judge a president by his — or, potentially, her — pets?

If history is any guide, no. Some of the most lovingly remembered presidents were not pet people, though others were. And some of the presidents whom history has smiled on the least were huge animal lovers.

Among the presidents with big menageries were Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge and John F. Kennedy.

Some presidents, including Martin Van Buren and the unpopular Andrew Johnson, who assumed office after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, apparently had no pets at all. Donald Trump might follow in their tradition.

Below, a quiz: Match the president to his pet.

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Pomp, Circumstance, Fur: A Quiz on Presidential Pets (Published 2016) (1)

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Him and Her were beagles. After the famously brash and aggressive president held Him up by the ears, animal activists were outraged and huge protests ensued. The president promptly lifted the dogs by the ears again in front of a pack of reporters — to prove that the dogs liked it. When Him did not complain, according to The New York Times, the president said, “He doesn’t yelp unless an A.P. photographer gets too close to him.”

Richard Nixon

George H.W. Bush

Lyndon Baines Johnson

Ronald Reagan

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Bo and Sunny, Portuguese water dogs, are both modern presidential pets — they have their own YouTube video and Facebook page — but also traditional ones in the sense that White House bakers, preparing for the hectic Christmas season, included their likenesses in some of the 25,000 holiday cookies they baked for visitors one year. The president and first lady chose the breed because the dogs are hypoallergenic and one of their children had allergies.

Bill Clinton

George W. Bush

Barack Obama

George H.W. Bush

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Pauline Wayne was the last pet cow to graze on the White House lawn. She provided milk and butter to the first family — including the notoriously rotund president — and was so popular nationally that her milk was once sold in little souvenir bottles.

Herbert Hoover

William Howard Taft

Harry S. Truman

Theodore Roosevelt

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Pushinka, a mutt, was given to the president by the head of the Soviet Union, who was far from his ally; her babies were known as the “pupniks.” Pushinka’s mother had been one of the first dogs to be launched into space and survive, so the gift of her offspring was clearly meant to flaunt the Soviet Union’s edge against the United States in the space race.

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Socks the cat struck a pose in the Oval Office. He was the mortal enemy of Buddy the dog.

Jimmy Carter

George H.W. Bush

Bill Clinton

Barack Obama

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Not at all a dog lover, this president received Feller, a cocker spaniel, as a gift — and promptly re-gifted him, to the anger of the American public. He and his wife had vowed not to have dogs or cats in the White House, making him the first president since Martin Van Buren to live there without pets. Interestingly, this president — who presided during the end of a World War — is famous for the quotation, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog,” though he apparently never said it.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Harry S. Truman

Woodrow Wilson

Lyndon Baines Johnson

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Dick was the favorite of many mockingbirds this president owned over the years. Dick lived in the White House and was allowed to fly freely. He enjoyed perching on the president’s shoulder and would start singing when the president played his violin. The ugly side of the story is that Dick’s doting master was a slave owner who bought his first mockingbird from a slave belonging to his father-in-law.

Andrew Jackson

Ulysses S. Grant

James Madison

Thomas Jefferson

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Which president, known for his laconic nature, used to wear his favorite raccoon, Rebecca, draped around his neck as he went about his business at the White House? His, wife, who is pictured above, did too.

Grover Cleveland

Ulysses Grant

Calvin Coolidge

Chester Arthur

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King Tut, a Belgian shepherd, was the president’s beloved companion, but sadly, the dog died at the White House, apparently from job stress. The Times's headline on the dog’s death read: “Responsibilities of His Position Thought Primary Cause of King Tut's Death.” As for the president, it was a cratering economy that drove him from office. Remember the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act — anyone? Anyone?

Warren G. Harding

Herbert Hoover

William McKinley

Chester Arthur

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King Timahoe was an Irish Setter; Pasha, a terrier; and Vicky, a poodle. Their owner — one of our most notorious presidents — was better known for Checkers, a dog he gave a speech about who died before he reached office.

Ronald Reagan

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Richard M. Nixon

John F. Kennedy

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Fido did not live in the White House — he stayed home in Illinois when the president went to live in Washington — but another dog, Jip, did. The president loved the dogs, apparently enough to have a rare photograph taken of Fido. He also was passionate about kittens and kept two pet goats, Nanny and Nanko, that were given full run of the White House and its grounds (and sometimes napped on the bed of the president’s son).

Ulysses S. Grant

Rutherford B. Hayes

Millard Fillmore

Abraham Lincoln

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Miss Beazley was a Scottish terrier, a gift from the president to his wife. The dog was a companion of the family’s older Scottish terrier, Barney. When the her family left the White House, the former first lady told The Times that the dogs were taking it hard (“They miss the large staff and have gotten clingy”), and the editor of Scottish Terrier and Dog News lamented: “There goes a regular source of news.”

George W. Bush

George H.W. Bush

Richard M. Nixon

Lyndon Baines Johnson

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Liberty, a golden retriever, was a favorite of the first family. She was often photographed sleeping by the president’s feet in the Oval Office, swimming in the White House pool and running around on the South Lawn. When she had puppies, the nation was charmed. But the public was not charmed enough to re-elect Liberty’s owner, who goes down in history as the only man to have served as both vice president and president without ever having been elected to either office.

Lyndon Baines Johnson

Gerald Ford

George H.W. Bush

Andrew Johnson

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Fala, the president’s Scottish terrier, became a national mascot and was made an honorary private in the Army as part of the war effort. Fala’s owner was so devoted to him that he once had to rebut allegations from political opponents that he had accidentally left the dog behind during a tour of the Aleutian Islands and had sent a Navy destroyer to fetch him, at great cost to American taxpayers. (The story was not true.)

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Woodrow Wilson

Harry S. Truman

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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This president, a Virginia farmer who enjoyed fox hunting, created the dog breed now known as the American foxhound — a breed recognized by the American Kennel Club as one of the country’s native breeds — out of a conviction that his young country should have a superior type of dog.

George Washington

James Monroe

John Adams

James Madison

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Laddie Boy, an Airedale, used to sit in on Cabinet meetings. Judging from the gifts he received, which included an elaborate birthday cake made of dog biscuits, he was as popular as his master, who was not reviled until after his death, when his name became synonymous with the Teapot Dome scandal.

Calvin Coolidge

Zachary Taylor

William Howard Taft

Warren G. Harding

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Millie and her puppies were such crowd-pleasers that the president’s wife wrote a book — “Millie’s Book,” which was said to have been “dictated to” the first lady.

Jimmy Carter

George H.W. Bush

George W. Bush

Ronald Reagan

RESTART

Presidential Election 2016

  • A President’s Best Friends Often Have Four Legs Nov. 8, 2020

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