{"id":995,"date":"2016-02-18T09:00:04","date_gmt":"2016-02-18T17:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sittingforacause.com\/blog\/?p=995"},"modified":"2018-08-14T16:36:21","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T23:36:21","slug":"10-weirdest-presidential-pets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sittingforacause.com\/blog\/pet-fun\/10-weirdest-presidential-pets\/","title":{"rendered":"The 10 Weirdest Presidential Pets"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you think of a president\u2019s pet, it\u2019s likely that a dog or cat will pop into your mind, but how about an alligator or a tiger? What if I told you that those two don\u2019t even scratch the surface of odd pets our past presidents kept? \u00a0In honor of President\u2019s Day this week, here are 10 of the weirdest presidential pets as documented by\u00a0Presidential Pet Museum<\/a>:<\/p>\n

1) Alligator<\/strong> \u2013 John Quincy Adams was given\u00a0an alligator<\/a>\u00a0as a gift from the Marquis de Lafayette,\u00a0which he kept in a White House bathroom. If it wasn\u2019t crazy enough to believe that one president had an alligator as a pet, Herbert Hoover\u2019s son, Alan, had two alligators that often wandered around on the White House grounds! I wouldn\u2019t want to get anywhere near one of these prehistoric predators<\/a>, let alone live with one!<\/p>\n

2) Hyena<\/strong> \u2013 It definitely isn\u2019t a stretch of the imagination to call Theodore Roosevelt a zookeeper \u2014 among the many animals he kept as pets (many of which were exotic), he owned a hyena.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>3) Lion <\/strong>\u2013 Calvin Coolage, who also had many different and exotic pets, was given two lion cubs by foreign dignitaries. Not to be beaten, however, Theodore Roosevelt had a lion as well! Would you want this beast<\/a>\u00a0in your living room?<\/p>\n

4) Tiger<\/strong> \u2013 Martin Van Buren had a pair of tiger cubs that were given to him as gifts from the Sultan of Oman, but he didn\u2019t get to keep them long before Congress made him send them to a zoo.<\/p>\n

5) Bear<\/strong> \u2013 Thomas Jefferson was given\u00a0two grizzly bear cubs <\/a>by Captain Zebulon Pike and kept them for a few months before sending them to Peale\u2019s Museum. Of course, the two animal-oriented presidents Calvin Coolage and Theodore Roosevelt had pet bears as well!<\/p>\n

6) Coyote <\/strong>\u2013 Yes, Theodore Roosevelt also had a pet coyote. I\u2019m seriously beginning to wonder where he was able to get all of these animals and how he was able to take care of them!<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>7) Bald Eagle<\/strong> \u2013 James Buchanan had not only one, but two bald eagles! How very patriotic of him!<\/p>\n

8) Opossum<\/strong> \u2013 Benjamin Harrison had two opossums, which he named Mr. Reciprocity and Mr. Protection. Though opossums may not seem like the weirdest pet to have, as some try to keep and raise them, the Opossum Society of the United States<\/a>\u00a0stresses that these are wild animals that belong outside on their own.<\/p>\n

9) Zebra<\/strong> \u2013 Incredibly, Theodore Roosevelt managed to get a zebra as well. Even more incredible, though, is the number of pets he had that I haven\u2019t mentioned! Some of these include a badger, a wildcat, a barn owl, and a raccoon!<\/p>\n

10) Pygmy Hippo<\/strong> \u2013Calvin Coolage was given\u00a0a pygmy hippo<\/a>\u00a0by Harvey Samuel Firestone as a gift. Fortunately, Billy never spent time inside the White House as Coolage gave him to the National Zoo, where he lived until his death in 1955. Even if they aren\u2019t suitable as pets, you have to admit these hippos<\/a>\u00a0are pretty cute!<\/p>\n

Theodore Roosevelt and Calvin Coolage are the clear winners for having the highest number of weird pets. It\u2019s a contest I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d really want to win \u2013 I\u2019ll stick with my dogs, cats, and bunny, thank you very much! If you\u2019re curious about the other crazy pets these two presidents had, check out Roosevelt\u2019s bio here<\/a>\u00a0and Coolage\u2019s bio here<\/a>!<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the weirdest pet you\u2019ve ever heard of, presidential or otherwise? Let us know in the comments below!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you think of a president\u2019s pet, it\u2019s likely that a dog or cat will pop into your mind, but how about an alligator or a tiger? What if I told you that those two don\u2019t even scratch the surface of odd pets our past presidents kept? \u00a0In honor of President\u2019s Day this week, here are 10 of the weirdest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":4929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28],"tags":[268,264,266,267,262,269,263,265],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sittingforacause.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sittingforacause.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sittingforacause.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sittingforacause.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sittingforacause.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=995"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sittingforacause.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4930,"href":"https:\/\/www.sittingforacause.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995\/revisions\/4930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sittingforacause.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sittingforacause.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sittingforacause.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sittingforacause.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}