Election year has arrived again this year.
This November, millions of Americans will vote to choose the next president here in the United States. Americans are sure to have a lot on their minds as this election cycle accelerates. That is wonderful. Fulfilling your civic duty is a great thing. But I would like to take advantage of this fleeting calm before the storm to highlight the residents of the White House, who often enjoy bipartisan support despite our inability to choose them: pets. I would like to talk about.
Yes, it is a little known fact that there is a person in the White House who does not have a pet. All but four presidents in this country's history have been pet owners. However, one could argue that that number is reduced to his three, as Andrew Johnson is said to have taken care of the mice that lived in his bedroom like “Cinderella”.
The property at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW is home to many creatures. This President's Day, let's talk about America's favorite POTUS.
bull elk animal house
President Theodore Roosevelt's White House was filled with pets. President Roosevelt's White House housed over 40 of his pets between himself and his six children. 11 horses, 6 dogs, 5 guinea pigs, 2 cats, badger, bear, lizard, rabbit, macaw.
There were many pranks between animals and children in President Roosevelt's White House. Roosevelt's sons, especially Archie Roosevelt, especially enjoyed riding a pony named Algonquin. Archie loved ponies so much that when he became ill, the other children hatched a plan to sneak the horse into the White House.they got it too in the elevator.
The Roosevelts also had a knack for naming living things. They had many pets with human names such as Jack, Pete, and Maude. This is my preferred naming method.
But when you have this many pets, you're bound to find some strange names. The Roosevelt family took naming to the next level and named their pets after real people. For example, some of their guinea pigs are named after real-life military personnel that President Roosevelt knew from the Spanish-American War, such as Admiral George Dewey and Robley “Fighting Bob” Evans. There are also things.
But perhaps the best homonymous pet name comes from Roosevelt's eldest daughter Alice. She named her pet snake “Emily Spinach” after her vegetable and her aunt Emily.
When asked why, Alice Roosevelt said it was because the snake was “green as spinach and as thin as Aunt Emily.”
Theodore Roosevelt didn't adopt the nickname Bull Moose until after he became president, but it seems fitting that the man who dwarfed his predecessor's pet collection would have an animal-themed nickname to boot.
Beyond the cool hedge
When I was a child, I wanted to have a raccoon as a pet.
But after a raccoon broke into my house and hissed at me, I realized I didn't actually want a pet. It was a formative experience that reminded me that raccoons are outside, not inside.
Clearly, no one in the Coolidge administration learned that valuable lesson. Instead they kept a pet raccoon named Rebecca. She lived on the grounds of the White House in a small house built just for her. She had everything, but she didn't even break into their house.
Calvin Coolidge received Rebecca from a farmer to eat on Thanksgiving in 1923 (yes that's a problem). The president and his wife Grace decided they liked raccoons too much and decided to get one.
At one point, the Coolidge family tried to make Rebecca their mate. His name was Ruben and he didn't stay long. Rebecca spent the remainder of the Coolidge administration blissfully eating eggs and persimmons while remaining perhaps the most powerful raccoon in the United States.
Rebecca the raccoon is so famous that she has her own Wikipedia page. A true female boss of our time.
Mr. Raccoon, please take notes. And please don't ever break into my house again.
presidential pet lightning round
We'd like to take this opportunity to introduce you to some presidential pets and why we think they're awesome in a nutshell.
- Willow (Biden) — She is currently the reigning Cat of the United States (COTUS) and is the first White House cat in more than a decade.
- Socks (Clinton) — They have lots of pictures. he just exists in the white housealso includes his portrait, which is probably the most elegant of cats.
- Billy Opossum (Hoover) — He's a possum who just moved into Rebecca's old house, was chosen to be the White House pet, and Herbert Hoover once loaned him to a local high school as a mascot. .
- Mason and Dixon (Buffalo-owned Fillmore) — I can't believe he named his horse that.
Overall, presidential pets don't dramatically change their owners' time in office. We shouldn't blame our pets for being part of the complicated legacy of our human president. Instead, we should take a moment to reflect on these small moments of joy, not for the president or his administration, but for ourselves.
The world is heavy, especially now, as there are countless problems that demand our attention. But while we do our best to make the world better, we can and should take care of ourselves and learn a little more about the creatures who make the world better without effort.
Whether it's your own pet or the president's pet, pets make this world a little better.
Darcy Winter is a fact checker and can be reached at: darcy.Winter@ubspectrum.com
