[ad_1]
The 2020 presidential election brings a slew of firsts to the White House: the first female vice president, as well as the first black woman and person of South Asian descent to hold the post. The first first lady to continue working full time. The first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president.
But President-elect Joe Biden brings another first in January: The very first shelter dog now resides in the White House.
New President and First Lady Dr Jill Biden will bring two dogs with them, both German Shepherds: Champ, who came from a breeder in 2008, and Major, whom the couple adopted from the Delaware Humane Society in 2018. .
Major came to the Delaware Humane Society as a puppy, along with his five siblings, after the litter was exposed to toxins and returned to the shelter. All six underwent life-saving medical treatment at a local veterinary emergency center, and all were later adopted.
President-elect Biden first heard of Major after his daughter, Ashley Biden, sent him a Facebook message from the shelter saying they were looking for homes for the puppies, according to The News Journal. Biden then called the shelter and ended up promoting and ultimately adopting Major.
While Major will be the first White House shelter dog, he technically won’t be the first rescue dog. That title belongs to Yuki, a stray dog that President Lyndon B. Johnson adopted after his daughter found him wandering around a Texas gas station on Thanksgiving Day 1966.
Champ and Major will bring a long tradition of dogs back to the White House.
President Donald Trump does not have a dog, the first dogless president since William McKinley, who served from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. (McKinley did, however, have some rather interesting pets: roosters, two kittens and a parrot named Washington Post which notably might whistle “Yankee Doodle.”)
In 2019, according to the Washington Post (the newspaper, not the parrot), Trump explained why he didn’t have a dog, saying he thought it would look “bogus” and that he was too busy.
“I wouldn’t mind having one, honestly, but I don’t have the time,” he said at the time. “How would I look like walking a dog on the White House lawn?”
Biden has included his dogs in his campaign for the presidency, playing on the enthusiasm of many of his supporters to bring back the beloved White House tradition.
“Let’s get the dogs back to the White House”, Biden tweeted November 1.
[ad_2]
Source link