Pushinka
President: John F. Kennedy
Years in Office: January 20, 1961-November 22, 1963

A gift from Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to President John F. Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline, Pushinka was a descendant of Strelka, one of the first dogs sent to space. Since this exchange happened during the Cold War, Pushinka was checked for spying devices and hidden microphones.

The Kennedy family had arrived at the White House with Charlie, a Welsh terrier. Together Pushinka and Charlie had four puppies, or “pupniks” as President Kennedy called them: White Tips, Streaker, Butterfly, and Blackie. They were among the dogs who greeted the family home.

One of John F. Kennedy Jr.’s first memories was of Pushinka coming down the slide of the treehouse nestled in Herbert Hoover’s favorite white oak: “We had a dog who was named Pushinka, who was given to my father by a Soviet official. And we trained that dog to slide down the slide we had in the back of the White House. Sliding the dog down that slide is probably my first memory.”

Socks
President: Bill Clinton
Years in Office: January 20, 1993-January 20, 2001

The first cat to inhabit the White House since Amy Carter’s Misty Malarky Ying Yang, Socks first leaped into fame, and the Clinton family, when he jumped into Chelsea’s arms as she was leaving the house of her piano teacher in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1991. Two years later, he moved from the governor’s mansion into the White House with the First Family. Socks was a diplomat, making good will visits to hospitals, schools, and nursing homes. Online, an animated version of Socks welcomed children to the White House website.

Socks was the subject of the satirical book, Socks Goes to Washington: The Diary of America’s First Cat in 1993. He also was part of a stowaway plot on Murphy Brown in a 1993 episode titled “Sox and the Single Girl.”

He was upstaged by Buddy, a chocolate Labrador retriever the Clintons adopted in 1997. According to Hillary Clinton, Socks despised Buddy from “first sight, instantly and forever.” When the Clintons left the White House in 2001, they took Buddy with them, but left Socks with Betty Currie, Clinton’s secretary. Socks also appeared with Bill Clinton on a series of stamps in the Central African Republic.

“I did better…with the Palestinians and the Israelis than I’ve done with Socks and Buddy.” –President Bill Clinton

Checkers and King Timahoe
President: Richard Nixon
Years in Office: January 20, 1969-August 9, 1974

There were three dogs in the Nixon household at the White House. President Nixon had a handsome Irish setter, King Timahoe. King Timahoe was joined by Vicky, a French poodle belonging to the president’s daughter, Julie, and Pasha, a Yorkshire terrier owned by the president’s daughter, Trish. In March 1969, official White House photographer Ollie Atkins posed the three dogs, in size order, on the White House lawn. His photos of the family, and Pasha, Vicky, and King Timahoe, can be seen in the book, Eye on Nixon. Other snapshots include the dogs being walked by the First Couple at Camp David and King Timahoe with the president on the beach at San Clemente.

Perhaps the most famous dog the Nixons owned was Checkers, a pooch that never made it to the White House. On September 23, 1952, Nixon made his infamous Checkers speech in which he defended accepting campaign contributions for his vice presidential run. He added, “A man down in Texas heard Pat on the radio mention the fact that our two youngsters would like to have a dog ...a little cocker spaniel dog in a crate that he’d sent all the way from Texas. Black and white spotted. And our little girl—Tricia, the six year old—named it Checkers…And I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we’re gonna keep it.”