by Wynn Eisman

Created on: January 20, 2009   Last Updated: January 27, 2009

It seems that the biggest question on everyones lips, right now, is: What breed of dog will the Obamas buy?

I think we all agree: you can tell a lot about a person from their pets. So, what then, does it tell us of American history, if we view our Presidents through their choice of pets?

For example, Americas
very first President, George Washington, had a parrot named Polly? Surely this can't mean that such a man lacked imagination? Well, no. Not when you also realise that he had a jackass named Royal Gift, which shows, not only imagination, but also a somewhat cryptic sense of humour: invaluable tools for the job.

Woodrow Wilson, during WWI, kept a flock of sheep on the White House lawn as part of his war effort. Did he enjoy knowing that, here at least, was one group that would always follow-the-leader? And, for a man known for his largely progressive term, this is surprisingly fitting, if you also consider his conservative and sometimes regressive policies towards racial equality.

The history books fail to tell us the colour of the sheep.

Theodore Roosevelt must surely have been our most open-minded president. His infamous attempt at spelling reform, using the "simplified spelling board" that discarded the silent e, along with other changes, would have left our language looking a little like an only slightly elaborate form of phone text.

Roosevelt was also the first American President to visit another country, Panama, while he was in office. What a trend that turned out to be!

It should be no surprise, then, that the Roosevelt's
owned, amongst others pets, a badger, a coyote, a hyena, a macaw a garter-snake, bears and a zebra. This is the very image of a man for which pegs and boxes just don't exist.

Since the early 1960's, and John sons term of office, presidential pets have become far more mainstream; mostly dogs and cats, up until now, when George Bush kept a cow. Hardly a boast when compared to Calvin Coolidge's Pygmy Hippo, but perhaps a sign that America
is, once again, ready to forge new ground.

So, the next time you ponder the Obamas new pet, let's all hope that the new First Family will surprise us all and buy a whale and a meerkat.

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