by Scott Bennett

Created on: January 19, 2009   Last Updated: January 27, 2009

President Truman once said "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog" and Barack Obama has been quick to take the advice. However, other presidents made surprisingly different selections for first pet.

Unsurprisingly the great hunter and animal aficionado Theodore Roosevelt brought a wide variety including a macaw, a garter snake, a badger and an unnamed one legged rooster. He also had a pony called Algonquin who on one occasion made the trip all the way up to the second floor to cheer up young Archie Roosevelt who was sick with measles. He barely scratched the surface for strangeness though.

The title of oddest pet goes to Calvin Coolidge who in the twenties had a presidential pygmy hippo named Billy. Coolidge seems to have really cared about getting the title of President with weirdest taste in animals also owning raccoons, a wallaby, a bear and a type of miniature antelope called a duiker. He also did well in the bizarre naming stakes with two lion cubs called Tax Reduction and Budget Bureau. Sadly many of the animals he owned, including Billy, resided at the Smithsonian Zoo rather than the White House.

While on the subject of oddly named pets the most interestingly named dog in white house history has to have been John Adam's scary pooch Satan though how satanic he was remains a mystery.

Fittingly, given Obama's inspiration from Lincoln, some of the most amazing White House pet history was Abe's. He was given 2 goats on taking over the presidency which were promptly named Nanny and Nanko. Lincoln's son Willie would hitch them up to carts and chairs ride the halls of the mansion scattering visiting dignitaries everywhere.

Tragically Willie Lincoln was to die, aged just eleven, from typhoid but not before taking on another pet and creating the greatest act in the history of the President-Animal relationship.

After treating the Christmas turkey as a pet and naming it Jack he realised it's fate and burst into a cabinet meeting to stop the "executioner". This has led to the yearly Presidential Thanksgiving turkey pardon.

Maybe in their time in the White House the Obamas and their pets will be able to create as lasting a tradition of American animal friendship as the Lincolns.

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