A White House without dogs? An alternate history of presidents minus the pups
The real Fala — Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s dog Fala sits beside a radio at a West Coast naval base as FDR accepts the nomination for a fourth term. (Photo: AP)
“I don’t own a dog.” — Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., explaining why he doesn’t post Facebook pictures of his pets.
Every president since Theodore Roosevelt has had a dog in the White House, and almost certainly the next one will, too —unless it’s Bernie Sanders. How would history have been different without them?
1944: On a visit to the Aleutian Islands, President Franklin Roosevelt accidentally leaves behind Fala, his pet cockatoo. A Navy destroyer is sent to retrieve the bird, but by the time it arrives the natives have killed and eaten it. The Audubon Society, denouncing the president’s “wanton indifference to the welfare of birdlife,” withdraws its endorsement of Roosevelt, leading to the election of Republican candidate Thomas E. Dewey.
FDR lifts his dog Fala as he rides from his special train to the yacht Potomac. (Photo: AP)
1952: Vice presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon, accused of accepting unreported gifts from supporters, goes on national television and vows to keep his daughter Tricia’s pet, Checkers, an eastern spotted salamander. Public revulsion forces Nixon off the ticket; Dwight Eisenhower replaces him with Harold Stassen and goes on to lose the election in a landslide.
Former President Richard Nixon, when he was the Republican candidate for vice president, goes on TV to explain an $18,000 expense fund during his famous “Checkers” speech, so named because he insisted on keeping at least one gift, the family cocker spaniel named Checkers. (Photo: AP)
1964: President Lyndon Johnson attempts to pick up his pet groundhog by the ears but accidentally lets it fall to the ground, breaking its neck. Facing mounting criticism from animal-rights activists, Johnson tries to distract the public by calling a special session of Congress to authorize expanded military operations in Vietnam, an episode later satirized in the hit movie “Wag the Hog.”
LBJ’s actual beagles — Former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson holds his dog, named Her, by the ears as White House visitors and his other dog, Him, look on. The infamous picture drew criticism from dog lovers. (Photo: Charles P. Gorry/AP)
1990: First lady Barbara Bush publishes “Millie’s Book,” an account of life in the White House from the viewpoint of the Bush family cat. Reviewers, noting that the putative author appeared to spend all her time either napping in the East Room or staring out at the White House lawn, called it “inexplicable” and “more than anyone could possibly want to know about the underside of the first family’s furniture.” Its most memorable passage quoted President George H.W. Bush, asking the housekeeper to clean Millie’s litter box of an accumulation of “deep doo-doo, or cat poo, or whatever you want to call it, just clean it out, OK?”
The real Millie — Former first lady Barbara Bush poses with her springer spaniel, Millie. (Photo: Doug Mills/AP)
2012: New York Times columnist Gail Collins writes six consecutive columns about the time Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, on a vacation trip to Canada, tied a kayak to the roof of his station wagon and asked his wife, Ann, to hold the family’s pet turtle, Seamus, in her lap. No one else pays any attention, and Romney defeats President Barack Obama in a landslide.
Not the real Seamus — After it was revealed that presidential candidate Mitt Romney had once driven 12 hours with his dog, Seamus, tied to the roof of his car in a dog carrier, a South Carolina Forward Progress “Dogs Against Romney” protester stands outside a venue where Romney was speaking. (Photo: SC Forward Progess)
SLIDESHOW – Presidential pooches: White House dogs through the years >>>
