Presidential Pets
Updated February 21, 2017 | Factmonster Staff 
U.S. presidents and their families have typically liked animals. Creatures from mice to bears have made a home at the White House and its grounds. The following list of presidential pets is not complete, however, as no doubt many a presidential cat or cow passed through without much public notice.
 Library of Congress President Harding with his dog Laddie |
| President | Animals |
|---|---|
| George Washington | Polly the parrot; 36 hounds; horses |
| John Adams | horses |
| Thomas Jefferson | a mockingbird; two bear cubs, a gift from Lewis and Clark |
| James Madison | Macaw the parrot; sheep |
| James Monroe | a spaniel |
| John Quincy Adams | an alligator; silkworms |
| Andrew Jackson | horses named Truxton, Sam Patches, Emily, Lady Nashville, and Bolivia; Pol the parrot; ponies |
| Martin Van Buren | two tiger cubs |
| William Henry Harrison | a goat; a cow |
| John Tyler | Le Beau, a greyhound; a horse named The General |
| James Knox Polk | a horse |
| Zachary Taylor | Old Whitey the horse |
| Millard Fillmore | no pets |
| Franklin Pierce | no pets |
| James Buchanan | Lara, a Newfoundland; an eagle; an elephant |
| Abraham Lincoln | Jack the turkey; goats named Nanny and Nanko; ponies; cats; dogs; pigs; a white rabbit |
| Andrew Johnson | white mice |
| Ulysses S. Grant | Faithful, a Newfoundland; horses named Jeff Davis, Julia, Jennie, Mary, Butcher Boy, Cincinnatus, Egypt, and St. Louis; ponies named Reb and Billy Button; pigs; dogs; a parrot; roosters |
| Rutherford B. Hayes | Siam, a Siamese cat; Grim, a greyhound; Duke, an English mastiff; Hector, a Newfoundland; Dot, a terrier; canaries; cows; horses; goats; other dogs |
| James Garfield | Kit the horse; Veto the dog; fish |
| Chester Alan Arthur | no pets |
| Grover Cleveland | a poodle; canaries and mockingbirds |
| Benjamin Harrison | Dash the dog; Whiskers the goat; dogs; an opossum |
| William McKinley | a parrot; an Angora cat and her kittens |
| Theodore Roosevelt | Sailor Boy, a Chesapeake Bay retriever; Manchu, a Pekingese; Skip, a mutt; terriers named Jack and Pete; cats named Tom Quartz and Slippers; Josiah the badger; Algonquin the pony; Eli the macaw; Jonathan the piebald rat; Emily Spinach, a garter snake; twelve horses; five bears; five guinea pigs; other snakes; two kangaroo rats; lizards; roosters; an owl; a flying squirrel; a raccoon; a coyote; a lion; a hyena; a zebra |
| William Taft | Pauline Wayne the cow |
| Woodrow Wilson | Old Ike the ram; sheep; chickens; cats |
| Warren Harding | Laddie Boy, an Airedale; Old Boy, a bulldog; canaries |
| Calvin Coolidge | Peter Pan, a terrier; Paul Pry (née Laddie Buck), an Airedale; Calamity Jane, a sheepdog; Boston Beans, a bulldog; King Cole, a shepherd; Palo Alto, a birder; collies named Rob Roy (née Oshkosh), Prudence Prim, Ruby Rough, and Bessie; chows named Blackberry and Tiny Tim; canaries named Nip, Tuck, and Snowflake; cats named Bounder, Tiger, and Blacky; raccoons named Rebecca and Horace; Ebeneezer, a donkey; Smokey, a bobcat; Old Bill, a thrush; Enoch, a goose; a mockingbird; a bear; an antelope; a wallaby; a pygmy hippo; some lion cubs |
| Herbert Hoover | Glen, a collie; Yukon, a malamute; Patrick, an Irish wolfhound; Eaglehurst Gillette, a setter; Weejie, an elkhound; fox terriers named Big Ben and Sonnie; shepherds named King Tut and Pat; an opossum |
| Franklin Delano Roosevelt | Fala, a Scottish terrier; Meggie, a Scottish terrier; Major, a German shepherd; Winks, a Llewellyn setter; Tiny, an English sheepdog; President, a Great Dane; Blaze, a mastiff |
| Harry S Truman | Feller “the unwanted dog” (adopted by Truman's personal physician); Mike, an Irish setter (belonged to Margaret Truman) |
| Dwight D. Eisenhower | Heidi, a Weimaraner |
| John F. Kennedy | Tom Kitten the cat; Robin the canary; Zsa Zsa the rabbit; Sardar the horse; ponies named Macaroni, Tex, and Leprechaun; parakeets named Bluebell and Marybelle; hamsters named Debbie and Billie; Charlie, a Welsh terrier, plus dogs named Pushinka, Shannon, Wolf, and Clipper, plus Pushinka and Charlie's pups: Blackie, Butterfly, Streaker, and White Tips |
| Lyndon Johnson | Him and Her, beagles; Freckles, a beagle (Him's pup); Blanco, a collie; Edgar, a mutt (née J. Edgar); Yuki, a mutt; hamsters and lovebirds |
| Richard Nixon | Checkers, a cocker spaniel; Vicky, a poodle; Pasha, a terrier; King Timahoe, an Irish setter; fish |
| Gerald Ford | Liberty, a Golden retriever; Chan, a Siamese Cat |
| Jimmy Carter | Grits the dog; Misty Malarky Ying Yang, a Siamese cat |
| Ronald Reagan | Rex, a King Charles spaniel; Lucky, a Bouvier des Flandres sheepdog |
| George H. W. Bush | Millie, a Springer spaniel; Ranger, one of Millie's pups |
| Bill Clinton | Socks the cat; Buddy, a chocolate Labrador retriever |
| George W. Bush | Spot, a Springer spaniel, born in the White House in 1989 to George H. W. Bush's Millie (died Feb. 21, 2004); Barney, a Scottish terrier; India (“Willie”) the cat. The Bushes' orange-striped polydactyl cat Ernie was judged too wild for White House life and now lives with a family in California. In 2004, the President gave his wife Laura a Scottish terrier puppy named Miss Beazley for the First Lady's birthday. |
| Barack Obama | Bo, a Portuguese water dog, joined the Obama family on April 14, 2009. The family took its time selecting a breed, which had to be hypoallergenic because Malia has allergies. The Obamas introduced another Portuguese water dog, Sunny, to the family on August 19, 2013. |
