White House Deadly for Some Dogs

The White House, for all its security, has not been all that protective of presidential dogs. President Jimmy Carter’s dog Grits, for instance, ran away.

President Lyndon B. Johnson’s celebrated beagles, Him and Her, both died at the White House, one by eating a rock, the other by the more conventional method of getting run over.

President Ulysses S. Grant had a series of dogs. Each, in turn, died mysteriously of causes unknown. Each death was particularly wrenching to his son, Jesse. At last Jesse was presented a Newfoundland pup. The boy treasured the dog, named him Faithful, but told his father of a consuming fear that it, too, would meet the same strange fate.

“Father asked no questions, made no accusations,” Jesse Grant wrote later. Instead the President, a shrewd analyst of enemy tactics, summoned the White House steward and handed him a note:

“Jesse has a new dog. You may have noticed that his former pets have been particularly unfortunate. When this dog dies, every employee in the White House will be at once discharged.”

Faithful enjoyed fine health all his White House days.