thepresidentguy on February 16, 2026: "Today is Presidents’ Day and to celebrate I wanted to focus on the presidents and their best friends—their pets. Dogs have overwhelmingly been presidents favorites with some noted examples being Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Fala (a Scottish terrier), Ronald Reagan’s Rex (a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel), and most recently Joe Biden’s Major (a German Shepard and the first shelter dog to live in the White House). The Kennedy’s had nine dogs while in the White House and George Washington had over 50 during his lifetime that he regularly used for hunting, Washington being credited with the creation of the “American foxhound” given his successful breeding efforts with dogs. Cats have also been a common critter in the White House with Abraham Lincoln being the first to have cats, Rutherford B. Hayes had a pair of Siamese cats which were also the first of their kind introduced in the country, and Bill Clinton’s cat Socks had his likeness used as a tour guide on the first official White House website. However, there have been a host of stranger animals as well. Birds were relatively common with Thomas Jefferson keeping mockingjays, William Howard Taft was the last to have a cow at the White House, and Woodrow Wilson kept sheep on the lawn to cut grass and collect their wool during World War I. But no presidential pet post can be complete without detailing both Theodore Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge. Each of these presidents boasted menageries of animals, with the Roosevelt’s having not just dogs, cats, birds, and horses, but also five black bear cubs, a badger, a lizard, a hyena, a zebra, a one-legged chicken, a garter snake, and a lion cub. In total the Roosevelt’s had 48 unique different animals species as pets. Not to be outdone, Coolidge’s had 23 different animals at the White House including a pair of lion cubs, a raccoon, a wallaby, a duiker, a Pygmy hippo, a bobcat, a flock of Peking ducks, and a pair of white collies. Grace Coolidge loved these collies so much, she remains the only First Lady to have one her pets featured in her official portrait.   Image Credit: @usnatarchives, @WhiteHouse  #ThePresidentGuy #PresidentsDay #Pets #PresidentialPets #FunFacts".