John F. Kennedy had the usual stable of dogs and cats but also owned a rabbit, a canary, a couple of parakeets, three ponies and a horse. Calvin Coolidge, who could have rivaled Michael Jackson on weird pet ownership, had a raccoon, a bobcat, a donkey, a wallaby, a pygmy hippo, a small antelope and a black bear. Andrew Johnson just kept the mice he found scampering around in his bedroom.
Some of the first pets had scales instead of fur. John Quincy Adams and Herbert Hoover had alligators, while Harry S. Truman owned a boa constrictor. Under some former presidents, the White House looked more like a farm than the ultimate seat of power. Abraham Lincoln had goats and a turkey; William McKinley had roosters; William Harrison and William Taft had cows; and nearly all of the early presidents owned horses.
Chester A. Arthur, the 21st president, is the only commander in chief who didn’t bring an animal to the White House. Perhaps that’s why that few Americans can remember who he was and what he did during his presidency.
"If I were President, I would strongly consider a Bird of Prey on my arm at all times … I just like the visual of the thing. "
Bird of prey Hell, in the last days of my term, I’d be packing a nice talking parrot and an eye patch. What’re they going to do, not elect you again to the highest office in the land?
Bird of prey Hell, in the last days of my term, I’d be packing a nice talking parrot and an eye patch. What’re they going to do, not elect you again to the highest office in the land?
I’m sure that conversation actually happened between Dubya and Cheney, but Cheney said no to the idea.
