Most US presidents have kept pets - and not just busty interns who can’t keep their mouths shut. Barack Obama has promised his daughters that they can get a dog; their choice slightly narrowed by the allergies of one of his girls. The search for a pet is being monitored closely by some Americans, with websites such as the “Obama Dog Blog” (www.obama-dog.com) following the ongoing hunt for the First Puppy. Perhaps a stroll through the pages of presidential history might aid the Obamas in their search …

Parrots were popular early on with the Founding Fathers. George Washington, James Madison and Andrew Jackson all had presidential pollies. Horses and hounds were practically mandatory back in those days, of course.

Among Washington’s dogs were animals named Drunkard, Sweet Lips, Tippler and Taster. In this sketch on the left, the handsome young General Washington appears to be ordering one of his faithful dogs to keep watch whilst he engages in a ‘brokeback mountain’ encounter with a fellow revolutionary.

John Quincy Adams kept an alligator whilst president, a gift from the Marquise de Lafayette of France. The alligator lived in the White House for several months, during which it was kept in the East Room and slept in a bath-tub.

Thomas Jefferson had two bear cubs, a gift from explorers Lewis and Clark when they returned from the west (what else do you get a man who has everything?). Martin Van Buren had two tiger cubs, which must have been harder to come by but would have looked impressive prowling around the Oval Office when they were older.

Millard Filmore and Franklin Pierce, two of the many adequate and regrettable, totally forgettable caretaker presidents, kept no pets at all. James Buchanan got the presidency back on track by keeping a Newfoundland, an eagle and an elephant. As you would expect from a man born in a log cabin, Abraham Lincoln was a great animal lover and his White House played host to goats, turkeys, ponies, cats, dogs, pigs and rabbits.

Former Union General Ulysses S. Grant kept many horses. Rutherford B. Hayes was more fond of dogs. Grover Cleveland kept a presidential poodle, which doesn’t seem right somehow. Teddy Roosevelt, the great outdoorsman, kept a whole menagerie consisting of dogs, horses, a badger, a piebald rat, a garter snake named Emily Spinach, five bears, five guinea pigs, two kangaroo rats, a flying squirrel, a raccoon, a coyote, a lion, a hyena and a zebra. By comparison, William Taft had only a single cow called Pauline. Woodrow Wilson had a ram he called Old Ike and some barnyard animals.

Warren Harding had an Airedale Terrier named Laddie Boy (both pictured left) that had a valet and sat in his own chair during Cabinet meetings. Newspapers published mock interviews with the dog. On Laddie Boy’s birthdays, the White House held parties for him and invited other dogs from the neighbourhood to come around and share elaborate dog biscuit cakes. On May 3rd 1921, Laddie Boy participated in a parade on a float specially constructed for him for “Be Kind to Animals Day”. He reportedly barked happily as the float was driven past his master on the reviewing stand.

Calvin Coolidge also had an Airedale (or possibly it was Laddie Boy, refusing to leave). However, Coolidge is best remembered – at least so far as animal ownership goes - for his pygmy hippo called William Johnson Hippopotamus, who was captured in Liberia and given to the president by Harvey Firestone, the founder of the American tyre company bearing his surname. Despite being a pygmy hippo, ‘Billy’ was already two metres long and weighed almost three hundred kilograms by the time he was given to Coolidge. The species was practically unknown in the US at the time of Billy’s arrival, and the pygmy stud went on to grand-sire most of the pygmy hippos that are to be found in American zoos today.

Herbert Hoover did not have such eclectic tastes and principally kept dogs, as did Franklin Roosevelt. Harry Truman, of all the US presidents, has the reputation as the non-animal lover. While other presidents may have not kept pets, when a supporter from Truman’s home state of Missouri sent him a Cocker Spaniel, Truman decided he didn’t want the dog and gave it to his personal physician, in a move which upset dog lovers across America. The dog went on to be known as Feller, the Unwanted Dog.

Dwight Eisenhower had a Weimaraner gun dog. Jack Kennedy had a cat named Tom Kitten and a canary named Robin. His children Jack Junior and Caroline used to ride the White House grounds on a pony named Macaroni (JFK did his own extensive riding elsewhere). LBJ had a pair of beagles named Him and Her.

Richard Nixon’s Cocker Spaniel ‘Checkers’ is possibly (and erroneously) the most remembered of presidential pooches. The origin of this mistake is likely a speech Nixon gave during the 1952 campaign when he was vice-presidential candidate alongside Eisenhower. He used receiving the dog as a gift to demonstrate his love for his children, a move which was generally thought to humanise him with the American public and prevented Eisenhower from dumping him from the ticket. Checkers died in 1964, five years before Nixon assumed the presidency.

Gerry Ford had a Golden Retriever named Liberty and a Siamese called Chan. Carter had a dog named Grits and his own Siamese with the unlikely name of Misty Malarky Ying Yang. Reagan had a King Charles spaniel called Rex and a sheepdog called Lucky (pictured left). The first George Bush had a Springer spaniel named Millie, who gave birth to a pup called Ranger during the presidency.

The Clintons had a kitten called Socks and a Chocolate Labrador called Buddy. The cat and dog apparently hated one another acutely, President Clinton saying on CNN in 2001, “I did better with … the Palestinians and the Israelis than I did with Socks and Buddy.” When the Clintons left the White House, the dog went with them to their new home but Socks was given away to Clinton’s secretary (not the first time that something was unexpectedly dumped on one of his staff). Several years later Buddy met the same fate as the Clinton’s first dog, Zeke, when he was run over by a car. Not one to dwell on the past, Bill promptly bought another Chocolate Lab and called him Seamus.

George W. Bush had a dog named Spot when he took office that, appropriately enough, was a pup of his father’s dog, Millie. After Spot died in 2004, W. bought wife Laura a Scottish terrier puppy - like the dog from the old “Chum” commercial - named Miss Beazley, for the First Lady’s birthday.

At the time of writing this, the field for the Obamas has been narrowed down to two breeds: either a Portuguese Water Dog or a Labradoodle. Certain segments of the political media await the final result with bated breath.

By the time you read this, the decision will probably have been made. To my disappointment, regardless of the seriousness of Malia’s allergies, it now seems only an outside chance that they will get an alligator or a pygmy hippopotamus.

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