Photo taken from the Library of Congress

President Harry Truman famously said “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” The odds a president had a dog during his term are 1 in 1.54 (65%).

In 1998, at the height of the scandal surrounding Monica Lewinsky, President Bill Clinton took that advice when he added Buddy, a Chocolate Labrador Retriever, to his household. “It is hard to find a photograph of President Clinton these days where he is not in the company of his dog, Buddy,” Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post wrote. The reporter speculated it was an attempt to send a subliminal suggestion that the misbehaving president was “in the doghouse” and predicted that no similar photographs of the President would be taken with his cat, Socks. “A message that the president is in the doghouse is one thing. A message that the president is in the cathouse is quite another.”

Americans like their presidents to have pets; it shows a human side. Sixty-three percent of American homes have a pet in them, and this fact gave John McCain a decided advantage in the last election. McCain could boast a variety of animal friends: Coco the retriever, Sam the spaniel, a ferret, three parakeets, a black-and-white cat named Oreo, and a matched set of turtles christened Cuff and Link. All Barack Obama could offer was a promise that if he won his daughters Sasha and Malia would get a dog.

After the election, all of America became involved in the search for the presidential puppy. Fifty thousand people signed a petition asking the First Family to adopt a shelter dog, while 42,000 cast their vote at http://www.presidentialpup.com/ for the breed they recommended to grace the White House. The debate was settled when the late Senator Ted Kennedy, who owed two Portuguese Water Dogs, gave the family a six-month-old Portie puppy now known as Bo Obama. In a recent interview with Oprah, the president says that what his girls like best about living in the White House is Bo.

In the gloom of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln’s house contained a pig named Fido, a rabbit, Tad Lincoln’s goats, Nanny and Nanko, a dog named Jip, several ponies, and a turkey named Jack. Jack was intended for the dinner table, but 10-year-old Tad begged to let Jack live and the fortunate bird obtained a presidential pardon, a ritual now observed in the White House every Thanksgiving.

Theodore Roosevelt’s riotous brood of six children had 40 pets, among them a macaw, guinea pigs, a badger, a raccoon, and a one-legged rooster. Alice Roosevelt had a snake named Emily Spinach that she liked to wear about her neck in order to unsettle visitors. The pony Algonquin was a special favorite, and once when Archie Roosevelt was sick, his brother Quentin brought Algonquin up the White House elevator for a visit.

Calvin Coolidge and his wife Grace had a personal zoo at the White House, with lion cubs, a pigmy hippo, a bear, and a wallaby. Mrs. Coolidge had a raccoon named Rebecca whom she walked on a leash and who loved taking long baths in the White House tub. They also had a large variety of dogs, including Collies, an Airedale, Shetland Sheepdog, Chow, and a Bulldog. “Any man who does not like dogs,” President Coolidge declared, “does not deserve to be in the White House.” Most of our presidents have shared the president’s mansion with a dog: 28 out of 43. Only 9 of 43 (1 in 4.78) have owned a cat, not counting the pair of tiger cubs sent to President Martin Van Buren by the Sultan of Oman. Dog, cat, or otherwise, an overwhelming 1 in 1.16 (86%) presidents kept a pet during his term.

Fala, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Scottish Terrier, accompanied his master through World War II. Fala was with FDR when he died and was given a place of honor at the funeral, barking his last respects as each volley was fired by the West Point cadets. He now lies a leash length away from his master at Hyde Park

President John Quincy Adams may have had the most unusual pet: an alligator brought to him by the Marquis de Lafayette, when our ally during the Revolution visited America in 1826. He lived for two months in the East Room of the White House in a bath tub before more suitable quarters were found. His wife Louisa contented herself with silkworms.