From a Shelter to the White House

The new residents of America's main residence are named Champ and Major. Let's leave aside the story of electing the new US president - we are not talking about politics now. We are talking about dogs! Champ and Major are the German shepherds of Joe Biden (who has become the 46th American president according to the official information) and his wife Jill. As soon as the Bidens, as it should be for the first couple of America, move to the White House, their dogs will settle there with them.

So what do the new "first dogs" of the United States look like and how did they appear in the life of the Bidens? Champ was presented to her husband by Jill. It happened in 2008 when Joe became vice president. The politician has long dreamed of a dog: they say that several photographs of different dogs were kept by Joe while flying on the plane across the country during the election campaign. And the name of the new puppy was given by the Biden's grandchildren, and it is also no coincidence. The fact is that Joe liked to repeat the words of his father: "Every time, champ [that is, champion], when you are knocked down, get up!"

Major has a different fate. Completely different: two years ago, the couple took him from the shelter of the Delaware Humanitarian Association. He got there as a puppy, along with his five brothers and sisters. Then they tried to poison the dog "family" with toxins, and animal defenders miraculously managed to save the entire litter. Each of the six dogs found a home, and Major, as it now turns out - the White House. The uniqueness of this dog is that it is the first dog in the history of America from a shelter, which will become a full-fledged resident of the presidential residence.

However, not the first "foundling"! The first was Yuki, President Lyndon Johnson's dog. Yuki was a terrier, though not a very purebred one. How did she get to the White House? Not right away: at first she was just picked up at a gas station in Texas - in 1966, exactly on the Thanksgiving Day. Maybe the savior angels fly to American dogs on the main national holiday? Lucy Johnson, the USA President's daughter became such an angel for Yuki. A year later, she presented the dog to her father as a birthday present. Since then, Mr. President and his faithful Yuki have not parted: they both swam together and attended official events. “It was a very important connection that personified the very American spirit,” Johnson's grandson once said about this friendship. Indeed, this is the real "American dream": a boy from a poor family who lived in a provincial town, and a half-breed dog from a gas station ended up in the White House together...

In general, Donald Trump, who served as the President of the United States from 2017 to... we will not specify - is the first head of this state who does not have a pet. Before him, dogs lived in the White House for a hundred years. Barack Obama, for example, had Bo and Sunny, Portuguese water dogs, also called kan diagoa, also called Portuguese Wasserhund. After winning the election, Obama told his daughters that they can take two puppies with them to the residence - they deserve it. Bo was the first to enter the White House - the one with the white chest and paws - he was presented to the first family by Senator Ted Kennedy. Sunny (the one who is all black) joined him a little later. Bo and Sunny's main responsibility was to take pictures with the guests, and they coped with this very successfully. "Everyone wants to see them and take pictures," the First Lady Michelle Obama said, "so at the beginning of each month I receive a request for their schedule and have to approve it".

When Bill Clinton was the American President, he also had a dog - a chocolate Labrador named Buddy. He also had a cat, Sox. These pets lived, according to the saying “like a cat and a dog,” Clinton even once said that it is more difficult to reconcile them than the Israelis with the Palestinians. However, we promised not to talk about politics - we'd better say that Buddy was very attached to his master and even slept in his bed when Hillary was not at home.

And a little more about Scotch Terriers, more precisely, about one of them. This is Fala, perhaps one of the most famous four-legged inhabitants of the White House, the favorite pet of the legendary Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This dog was presented to the President by his cousin in 1940, and Roosevelt gave him a sonorous name Murray, Falahill's robber, in honor of his Scottish ancestors. Fala is obviously a diminutive variant. It is said that Fala received truly presidential honors: he had a personal secretary, whose duties included answering numerous mails received at the dog's address.

Every morning a bone was brought to the dog for breakfast on a tray, and one day Roosevelt ordered to bake a personal birthday cake for him.

In a word, it was a very famous dog. Fala was even honored with his own monument - it was erected next to the monument to Roosevelt himself in Washington.

In addition to dogs, other animals lived in the White House: cats, parrots, geese, hamsters and even a pony named Macaroni. The mini-horse was the "first pet" during the presidency of John F. Kennedy and belonged to his daughter Caroline. However, dogs were and still are the favorite pets of all American leaders. This is the reason why that have been living there for a whole century...