What started the tradition of political canines? Has any ever had another kind of pet?
Believe it or not, there is a Presidential Pet Museum.
Presidents have had dogs, cats, horses, birds, fish, cows, goats, a turkey, roosters, opossums -- even alligators.
Now, I'm cheating a bit. The Presidential Pet Museum's exhaustive list includes animals kept by presidents at all times of their lives -- even when they were children -- and it also includes animals kept by the presidents' children. That includes Jack, a turkey belonging to Tad Lincoln, and the pair of alligators owned by President Hoover's son, Allen Henry. Both the turkey and the alligators were known to live on the grounds of the White House.
Since Kennedy, only dogs and cats have lived at the White House. The last unusual White House pet was Macaroni, Caroline Kennedy's pony, which stayed at the White House for a period. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush each had horses, but they were not kept at the White House, and Bush also has Ofelia, a longhorn that lived on the family ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Herbert Hoover had an opossum while in the White House . Calvin Coolidge had a pet raccoon. Woodrow Wilson had a herd of sheep.
Source: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/content/kids/en_US/explore/history/presidential-pets/