Presidential agreement: If you want a friend, get a dog

WASHINGTON - The White House could be called the Dog House - not because of the presidents who have gotten in trouble there, but because of all the canine companions that have loyally stood by their side.

More than 200 dogs have lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. President Bush's Scottish terriers, Barney and Miss Beazley (a puppy that moved into the White House this month), are just the latest in a long line of presidential pooches.

Theodore Roosevelt and his family had several dogs (and other pets, including a badger named Josiah, a blue macaw named Eli Yale, and a pony named Algonquin). Sailor Boy, the Roosevelts' Chesapeake Bay retriever, loved to swim behind the boat when the president took his kids out on the Potomac River.

Pete, the Roosevelts' bull terrier, was a real terror. He once attacked a government worker, an unfortunate event that was reported on the front page of The Washington Post in 1907.

Pete "ambled out on the beautiful greensward of the White House early yesterday morning with fire flashing from his angry eyes," the paper said.

Calvin Coolidge's wire fox terrier, Peter Pan, was another troublemaker.

One summer day in the 1920s, a woman came to the White House wearing a long dress made of very light material. As the woman walked by, Peter Pan grabbed the dress with his teeth and tore it off. The poor lady was left standing before the president of the United States in her underwear!

Some White House dogs, including Lucky, Ronald Reagan's Bouvier des Flandres, have shown little regard for their masters' high office. Bouviers were originally bred to herd cattle, and Lucky apparently retained the instinct. He was often seen trying to herd the president across the White House lawn by pushing against his side and nipping at his heels. Once he even bit the president on the behind, a trick Bouviers use to move particularly stubborn cattle.

Despite the occasional mishaps, presidents have often relied on their dogs for loyal support in what can be a very lonely and demanding job.

"If you want a friend in Washington," Harry Truman once remarked, "get a dog."

During the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the United States and the Soviet Union came close to nuclear war, a worried President John F. Kennedy called for his Welsh terrier, Charlie, to comfort him.

One of the most famous White House dogs was Fala, Franklin Roosevelt's Scottish terrier. Fala was always at his master's side; they even slept in the same bed. Fala and the president now are buried in the same rose garden.

Some of Roosevelt's political opponents tried to use his relationship with Fala against him. They started a rumor that Fala had been left behind on an island after a presidential visit, and that Roosevelt ordered a U.S. warship to go get him. Roosevelt denied the rumor in a nationwide radio broadcast and used the occasion to poke fun at the people who started it.

"Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or my sons," Roosevelt said. "No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala. Well, of course, I don't resent attacks, and my family doesn't resent attacks, but Fala does resent them. ... He has not been the same dog since."

Another famous resident of the White House was Millie, George H.W. Bush's English springer spaniel. Her book (written with a little help from then-first lady Barbara Bush) became a bestseller - even outselling the president's own book.

Millie's daughter, Spot Fletcher, was born in the White House in 1989 and moved back in 2001 with the Bushes' son George W. Historians say that Spot, who died last year, is the only pet to have lived in the White House twice.