President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, were confirmed animal lovers who were most happy at their California ranch where they could spend time with their horses and dogs. In fact, Reagan famously once said, “there is nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.”
There were several Reagan White House dogs, and one of them was a Bouvier des Flandres given to them by a six year old March of Dimes poster child, Kristen Ellis, in 1984. Mrs. Reagan named the 9-week-old puppy “Lucky,” in honor of her mother, Edith Luckett (“Lucky”) Davis; by all accounts, the Reagans loved Lucky, and she loved them. One of the best photos of Lucky and Reagan show an amused President sitting at the window of Marine One, the presidential helicopter, with Lucky on his lap:
Lucky was notorious for thundering down the halls of the White House and in the West Wing, and when she saw the helicopter, she would get very excited because it meant a trip to the presidential retreat. According to Nancy Reagan, however, Lucky grew from a “ball of fluff to be the size of a pony.”
In 1985, Margaret Thatcher and Reagan walked Lucky on the White House lawn, but it was just as possible that Lucky was walking Reagan.
Ultimately, the Reagans determined that Lucky would be happier at their ranch than in the White House, and in 1985, she became a California dog.
For eight month before her departure, Lucky was groomed in the mid 1980s by Claire McLean. McLean saved the hair she clipped off Lucky, and that’s where the point of our post comes in. McLean’s mother, Dorothy De Silva, painted a picture of Lucky using the dog’s real hair.
The painting inspired McLean with an idea.
