As mentioned in a previous post, the White House is going to be occupied by dogs again. We know that Joe Biden is a dog lover as is his wife, Jill. He has praised his wife tremendously for her support and he said that she will make a great First Lady, which I can well believe. She’s a doctor as I understand it.
There are two dogs, Champ and Major, and they’re going to be social media stars in no time at all. They have Twitter and Instagram accounts already in their names and the Twitter handle is DOTUS. It stands for Dogs of the United States. I like that.
You can feel the mood change already. Just being able to discuss dogs in the context of the president of the United States changes the mood of the nation. They inject into the presidential profile a completely different feel: one which is much more friendly. This is important for Biden because his major role is to reunite the country to get people to work together to the betterment of the nation.
Pres Trump was known, amongst other things, for being the first president since James K Polk, who served from 1845 to 1849, not to have any pets. Trump made it clear that dogs were not for him. He said he was too busy to look after a dog and that it would look phony if he walked around the White House lawn with a dog on a lead.
The first known presidential pet was an Airedale terrier whose name was Laddie Boy. He was a celebrity during Pres Harding’s 1921-23 presidency. The Times newspaper tells me that Laddie Boy used to sit on his own chair during cabinet meetings. The paper also reports that he howled for three days as his human companion lay dying.
Pres Roosevelt in 1944 had a dog, Fala, who apparently was left behind during a visit by his master to the Aleutian Islands. Fala was rescued by a US Navy destroyer at the taxpayer’s expense. The story was untrue. Roosevelt said that his dog was furious at the “attacks” on his character.
President Clinton lived with his cat companion Socks at the White House. He introduced a Labrador, Buddy, without asking Socks first! The relationship failed dramatically and they appear never to have got a long. Clinton said that he “did better with the Palestinians and the Israelis than I’ve done with Socks and Buddy”.
Former President George W Bush Lived with Barney a Scottish terrier, who once bit a visiting official. It will be great to have a dog back at the White House and I’m sure that sentiment applies to non-Americans as well who are observing the election.
