The White House will soon welcome its first rescue dog occupant.
President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, are bringing Major, a German shepherd they adopted two years ago from the Delaware Humane Association.
Also moving in is Champ, the couple’s other German shepherd they got as a puppy, according to NBC’s “Today” show.
The canines are the first pets to occupy the White House since the Obama administration’s Bo and Sunny, two Portuguese water dogs.
Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election over the weekend, when several major news organizations projected him to win Pennsylvania and Nevada, putting the Democrat well over the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the Oval Office.
Animals have long been a major part of life at the White House.
In 1863, 10-year-old Tad Lincoln befriended a turkey sent to the White House for a holiday feast. He named the bird Jack and treated him as a pet, according to the White House Historical Association.
As Christmas Day approached, Tad realized it would soon be time to prepare the turkey for Christmas dinner. The young boy burst into the Cabinet meeting in tears and pleaded with his father to pardon the bird from the “executioner.” Recent presidential speeches cite this historic anecdote as the basis for the modern-day turkey pardoning photo-op at Thanksgiving.
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s dog, Fala, became a movie star in 1943 when MGM made a short-subject film relating the World War II home-front story from the canine’s perspective. The studio made a second installment in 1946 after his master’s death that included Fala’s tour of Hyde Park, the Roosevelt family estate and future site of a presidential library.
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