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Not Your Average Household Pets

Not Your Average Household Pets

Archie Roosevelt with Josiah

Josiah (Josh)

Josiah was a badger. As the story goes, Roosevelt was on a railroad tour of the west, and at his last stop in Sharon Springs, Kansas, 12-year-old Pearl Gorsuch approached him and asked if he wanted a badger. He must have said, yes, because the girl ran off and returned with a two-week-old badger! Her entire family came with her, including her father, Josiah. You guessed it! The baby badger was named after the girl’s dad, and nicknamed, Josh. The small badger rode back to DC in the president’s railroad car. T.R. promptly wrote to Kermit. Talking about “treasures,” Roosevelt wrote, “One treasure, by the way, is a very small badger … He is very cunning and I hold him in my arms and pet him.” He went on to describe feeding Josiah milk and potatoes.

Back at the White House, T.R. had a large pen built for Josiah, mainly to protect the badger from the dogs, and other predators. Josiah was known to nip at people’s ankles and legs. It was playful, at first, but as he got older, he became more aggressive, so T.R. sent him to live at The Bronx Zoo in New York, where the family visited him often.

 

Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. with Eli Yale

Eli Yale

As if a house filled with raucous, playful children, yowling cats, barking dogs, and any number of other pets, wasn’t enough of a cacophony, let’s add the screams, squawks, screeches, clicks, and whistles of one of the loudest birds in the world—a macaw! Eli was known for being outspoken (Yes, she talked) and ornery to the staff. When the conservatory was being renovated, she spewed strings of “choice” words at the workers who dared invade her turf.

 

As he usually did around pets, T.R. maintained his sense of humor. He wrote Eli is “… the most gorgeous macaw, with a bill that I think could bite through boiler plate, who crawls all over Ted, and whom I view with dark suspicion.”

 

Things That Go Hiss in the Night

Emily Spinach

Theodore Roosevelt’s oldest daughter, Alice was unconventional in many ways. The child from his first marriage (Her mother died shortly after giving birth) was already 17 by the time the family moved into the White House. She was a stunningly beautiful young woman, whom the press adored, especially since she was one to defy societal norms. She smoked. She played poker. She had a pet garter snake! She delighted at toting the snake around town in her purse and taking it out at the most inappropriate time. When a reporter asked why she called the creature Emily Spinach, she replied because it was “… as green as spinach and as thin as my Aunt Emily.”

 

Snakes Alive!

Young Quentin not only knew how to make an entrance, but he also knew how to clear a room! It seems the youngest Roosevelt sibling had a lot in common with the eldest Roosevelt sister—an affinity for snakes and causing a scene.

There are a few variations of this story. It’s said that young Quentin’s snake was not feeling well, so he brought it to a pet store (or a “snakeologist” called Schmid). The boy was crushed that he’d have to leave the sickly slitherer to be examined and pick it up later, so the proprietor gave Quentin a king snake and a couple of smaller snakes to cheer him up. Quentin promptly roller-skated back to the White House, burst into the Oval Office where his dad was having a meeting (with the Attorney General or several congressmen, as versions of the tale go), and dumped the snakes on the desk to show them off, causing an unwelcome commotion.

Another version depicts Roosevelt separating the king snake from the smaller snakes it was trying to eat while the stunned congressmen looked on! But then the king snake wound itself around Quentin’s arm, and men were at a loss. Ultimately, someone was brave enough to take off the boy’s jacket to release him from the snake.

Whichever version (or something entirely different) is correct, we can bet the snakes were immediately returned.

 

More Wild Times at the White House

The Roosevelts’ other exotic or unusual pets included a rabbit named Peter, two kangaroo rats, a flying squirrel, a whole slew of guinea pigs, a lion, a hyena, a wildcat, a coyote, five bears, a zebra, a barn owl, a lizard, roosters (including a one-legged rooster), hens, a pig, a raccoon—and surely many more.

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