Political pets

Pretty soon there will be a new resident in the White House. We're talking pets, here. So who might the new furry resident be?

According to visitmypet.com, Hillary Clinton is the owner of a chocolate lab named Seamus.

Barack Obama? Well, he doesn't really have any pets right now. But in that fine old political tradition, he has "promised" his kids a dog. Uh-huh.

And John McCain, probably because he has a ranch, wins for sheer numbers. He has three turtles, three parakeets, a ferret, two dogs, a cat and 13 salt water fish. How many of those would actually make it to the White House should McCain win is unknown.

There's a fascinating list  of the many and varied pets our past presidents have owned on Wikipedia. Some became famous, like Richard Nixon's dog Checkers and Franklin Roosevelt's Scottish terrier Fala.

Of more recent vintage, there's Socks the cat and Buddy the lab (Bill Clinton); Millie the springer spaniel (George H.W. Bush) and Beagle and Little Beagle and Him and Her (touching names if I ever heard them) owned by Lyndon B. Johnson.

Jimmy Carter's daughter Amy was given a dog named Grits by her teacher. But Grits was later "returned." (Boo!) She did, however, also have a Siamese cat named (I'm not kidding) "Misty Malarky Ying Yang" who apparently was allowed to stay.

Through the years there also have been schnauzers and Welsh terriers, hamsters and lovebirds, fighting roosters and mice, goats and cows, cats of all kinds, horses, and even a few alligators (Herbert Hoover and John Quincy Adams).

According to Presidential pets at Inside the White House , Abraham Lincoln allowed his sons, Tad and Willie, to keep as many pets as they wished, resulting in a managerie of rabbits, turkeys, horses and two goats (Nanny and Nanko).

James Garfield had a dog he named "Veto" -- as a threat to Congress.

George Washington, our nation's first president, owned a black and tan coonhound along with other dogs he called by the names of "Drunkard," "Taster," "Tipler" and "Tipsy."

Our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, began his term in 1901 with six children and "more animals thant the White House ad ever seen," according to Inside the White House. There was a small bear named Jonathan Edwards, a lizard named Bill, guinea pigs named Admiral Dewey, Dr. johnson, Bishop Doane, Fighting Bob Evans and Father O'Grady, and Maude the pig. Ah, but that's not all. There also was a badger, a blue macaw, a hen, a one-legged rooster, a hyena, a barn owl, a rabbit and a pony.

The only president so far who left no record of having any pets? Chester A. Arthur, who became president after James Garfield was assassinated and served from 1881-85.

Never heard of him, have you?