Roosevelt Pets
There’s a pet cemetery at Sagamore Hill given the name “Old Faithful Friends." A total of 7 animals are buried at the cemetery, two horses and five dogs. The first horse is “Little Texas” that was ridden by Theodore Roosevelt during the Spanish American War in Cuba. The second is “Tamara” ridden in World War I by Theodore Roosevelt Jr. The other five are dogs; Susan, Jessie, Little Boz, Jack and Skip. Their names are engraved in a small rock.
Other Pets
While in Sharon Springs, Kansas TR was given a small baby badger by 12 year old Pearl Gorsuch. Roosevelt called him Josiah named Pearl’s father who handed the badger to Roosevelt. Josiah wound up being kept in a special cage built with two feet of underground space for him to burrow. (Roosevelt in Sharon Springs, Kansas Holding Josiah)
While 80% of a badger’s diet is earthworms, they’ll still eat almost anything from rabbits to grapes to bird eggs. Roosevelt gave Joshia to Archie and he'd always worried that eventually it would bite his face right off. At some point Josiah started sharpening his teeth on the furniture, shredding one piece after another. Add that to an increasingly ornery disposition and everyone had enough. At the end of the summer in Oyster Bay on their way back to Washington the family brought Josiah with them on the train where he was picked up at the Long Island City railroad station by a uniform Bronx Zoo attendant who personally brought him door to door to his new home.
The Roosevelt children's family of pets ranged from 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; Maude the pig; Josiah the badger; Eli Yale the blue macaw; Baron Spreckle the hen; a one-legged rooster; a hyena; a barn owl; Peter the rabbit; and Algonquin the pony. President Roosevelt loved the pets as much as his children did. Algonquin was so beloved that when the President's son Archie was sick in bed, his brothers Kermit and Quentin brought the pony up to his room in the elevator. But Algonquin was so captivated by his own reflection in the elevator mirror that it was hard to get him out!
Alice had a pet garter snake she named Emily Spinach because it was as green as spinach and as thin as her Aunt Emily.
The Roosevelts were dog lovers. Among the bunch were Sailor Boy a Chesapeake retriever, Jack the terrier, Skip the mongrel, and Pete a bull terrier. Alice had a small black Pekingese named Manchu she received from the last empress of China during a trip to the Far East. Alice once claimed to have seen Manchu dancing on its hind legs in the moonlight on the White House lawn.
"Jack, the most loved of all," was a Manchester Terrier. When he died Edith buried him in a casket with a glass top. He was the first dog allowed in the house.
TR noted the kitten Tom Quartz was always playing pranks on Jack. "The other evening, they were both in the library—Jack sleeping before the fire—Tom Quartz scampering about... Suddenly he spied Jack and galloped up to him. Jack, looking exceedingly sullen and shame-faced, jumped out of the way and got upon the sofa, where Tom Quartz instantly jumped upon him again. Jack suddenly shifted to the other sofa, where Tom Quartz again went after him. Then Jack started for the door, while Tom made a rapid turn under the sofa and around the table, and just as Jack reached the door leaped on his hindquarters. Jack bounded forward and away and the two went tandem out of the room—Jack not reappearing at all; and after about five minutes Tom Quartz stalked solemnly back."
TR noted the one dog with the strongest character was Sailor Boy." He had a masterful temperament and a strong sense of both dignity and duty. He would never let the other dogs fight, and he himself never fought unless circumstances imperatively demanded it"
Rollo was a big friendly Saint Bernard which belonged to the family. A newspaper noted: "No doubt visitors to the White House or Sagamore Hill were often startled to see the Roosevelt children racing across the lawn, pursued by the bounding Rollo, who looked like some huge beast, ready to destroy them. But Rollo was a children's dog, and he protected the president's children as efficiently as the Secret Service men who always hovered near."
Skip, a black-and-tan Terrier, belonged to Archie. TR said, "He never lets his small master out of his sight.” Once, while the rest of the family was away from the White House, TR wrote, "I miss you all dreadfully, and the house feels big and lonely and full of echoes with nobody but me in it…" "Poor Skip is a very, very lonely little dog without his family. Each morning, he comes up to see me at breakfast time and during most of breakfast (which I take in the hall just outside my room) Skip stands with his little paws on my lap. Then when I get through and sit down in the rocking-chair to read for fifteen or twenty minutes, Skip hops into my lap and stays there, just bathing himself in the companionship of the only one of his family he has left..."