President Barack Obama had two dogs named Bo and Sunny; President George H.W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush had several dogs, including one named Millie; but no one has had more pets in the White House than President Theodore Roosevelt. When President Roosevelt took office in 1901, he filled the house with his six children—Alice, Theodore Jr., Kermit, Ethel, Archibald, and Quentin—and a variety of pets. 

The Roosevelt menagerie included a pony named Algonquin, a macaw named Eli Yale, a St. Bernard named Rollo, and many other dogs, rabbits, birds, and reptiles. One of the family favorites was Skip, a terrier found by President Roosevelt during a hunting trip out west. When his family was away, the president wrote to them: “the house feels big and lonely…poor Skip is a very, very lonely little dog without his family.”