Dog ownership by US presidents is a favorite “sidebar” topic of the media, but not every administration had had a “first dog.” Was the administration of the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921, Woodrow Wilson’s, one of them?

There seems to be no official reference to an Airedale Terrier named “Davie Bones” living in the Wilson White House, but there is a photo of him dated from 1916 leading some to believe that Davie may have been Wilson’s pet before he became President. A letter written in 1917 by Henry Edward Cowan, a journalist, suggests that Davie was indeed Wilson’s dog, but that he went to live on a farm.

This isn’t to say that Wilson didn’t like dogs. In fact, he once famously said, “If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience.”  That hints at a man who had a handle on the character of a dog.

Wilson did have a beloved Greyhound as a youth, a dog named Mountain Boy whom he frequently drew in his notebooks, but his “dog-less-ness” in the White House may have been attributed to his first wife’s illness. Sadly, she died of kidney failure during during Wilson’s first year in the White House.

If Wilson was known for any White House animals, they were chickens and sheep he kept as the most economical way to keep the lawn trimmed. The flock freed up White House gardeners to join the war effort while raising money from their fleece. In 1919, Wilson auctioned the wool off to the tune of $52,823 for the Red Cross, a huge sum at the time, and the next year, he donated 185 pounds of wool to the Salvation Army.

There was also “Old Ike,” a cantankerous Shropshire ram notorious for chewing tobacco from discarded cigar butts he snagged whenever he could find them. Old Ike’s obituary in the Spartanburg (S.C.) Herald in 1927 described the ram’s one final “chew” as he neared his death of old age (courtesy of his caretaker). Reportedly,  “he dropped off peacefully munching it.”

Toward the end of Wilson’s term, the President suffered a stroke while on a speaking tour and his health started to fail. An admirer of the President, a Bull Terrier breeder, gifted Wilson a terrier to keep the man company as his health declined.  The dog, described as gentle and a well-trained companion, was named, “Whitestock Service Man,” or Bruce, for short. When the Wilsons moved to their new home in Washington D.C. after Woodrow’s presidency was over, Bruce went along.

Image: “Bull Terrier Dreams” by Michael Tompsett is available for purchase as fine art, a greeting card and a puzzle here