DC MENAGERIE

A book recently published on the subject piqued my interest in what pets U.S. Presidents kept in or around the White House.  Since I've been kicking, almost every President has had a dog or two.  Only Jimmy Carter was a cat lover.  Going back, it gets a little more complicated.  Here is a list of some of the pets, other than dogs, our Presidents have kept. 

President Washington had horses in the yard and many dogs in the House.
John Quincy Adams had a pet alligator which he kept in a bath tub.
Martin Van Buren had two tiger cubs he had received as gifts from a Sultan.
Abe Lincoln kept a horse as did Theodore Roosevelt.  Teddy also had a pet Macaw.
Benjamin Harrison had a pet goat he kept on the lawn.
William Howard Taft kept a cow named Pauline on the lawn and had it milked regularly for use in the House.
Woodrow Wilson had a dozen sheep which grazed on the White House lawn.
Warren Harding kept a pet squirrel and Herbert Hoover kept a pet opossum.
Calvin Coolidge took the cake.  Here's some of what Silent Cal kept at the White House.
He had about twelve dogs at one time; a pair of canaries; another canary and a thrush; a goose and a mockingbird; two cats and two raccoons; a donkey; a bobcat; lion cubs; a wallaby; a bear, and last but not least, a pygmy hippo.  He should have been a zoo keeper.

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