Have you ever wondered which pets called the White House home? Take a look at this list to see the wide variety of pets that spent their days on Pennsylvania Avenue.
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.