First Lady Laura Bush celebrated the importance of pets to family life at the White House with the 2002 holiday decorations theme, All Creatures Great and Small. Mrs. Bush noted that “animals and birds of every description have entertained, befriended, comforted, and worked for presidents and their families.” With the help of the Executive Residence staff, the National Park Service, and an army of volunteers, the display honored “the endearing role of all the dogs, cats, birds, horses, sheep, and even alligators and raccoons in White House history.”


Barney has been the star of a White House web cam series; Rob Roy was immortalized in Grace Coolidge’s official portrait; and it is a satisfying but dubious legend that Lafayette kept an alligator in the unfinished East Room while visiting President and Mrs. John Quincy Adams in 1825.

TOP: Taping for Barney Cam IV, 2005.

MIDDLE: Alligator Christmas decoration, 2002.

LOW: Rob Roy Christmas decoration, 2002.


White House photo by Shealah Craighead