OkcPets Magazine January 2023

8 OKC Pets • January / February 2023 A braham Lincoln’s birthday on February 12 and Presidents’ Day on February 20 are good times to remember his animals. When Lincoln moved into the White House in March 1861 for his first term as sixteenth presi- dent of the United States, his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, sons Willie and Thomas (Tad), and var- ious animals moved also. (The eldest son, Robert, was attending Harvard, and the second son, Eddy, had died as a young child.) Lincoln was the first president known to have had family kitties in the White House. His kittens Tabby and Dixie — gifts from Secretary of State William Seward — were the original First Felines. Lincoln loved cats and could play with them or talk to them for hours. He brought home strays. When someone asked his wife if he had a hobby, she said, “Cats.” Lincoln fed Tabby from the table during a formal dinner, embarrassing his wife. He said, “If the gold fork was good enough for former President James Buchanan, I think it is good enough for Tabby.” Frustrated, Lincoln reportedly once said, “Dixie is smarter than my whole cabinet! And furthermore she doesn’t talk back.” On a visit to Union General Ulysses Grant in Virginia, Lincoln noticed three kittens in the telegraph hut. He put them on his lap and asked about their mother, who was dead. He recommended that the kittens be fed and a good home found for them. Lincoln’s compassion extended to other animals. When he was elected president in 1860, fireworks and cannons announcing victory in Springfield, Illinois, where Lincoln lived, terrified the family dog, Fido. The Lincolns thought the train trip to Washington, D. C., and noisy celebrations would be traumatic for Fido. They left him with friends with strict instructions that he should be treated with compassion. The Lincolns also had rabbits, a horse named Old Bob, and goats Nanny and Nanko. Hitched to carts or kitchen chairs, the goats pulled Tad and Willie around the White House. When Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November 1863 as “a day of Thanksgiving and Praise,” someone sent a live turkey to the White House for Thanksgiving dinner. Lincoln took time out from a Cabinet meeting to reprieve the turkey. The White House cats consoled Lincoln, who was depressed by the death and suffering on both sides of the war. The sorrow was even more pro- found after 11-year-old Willie died on February 20, 1862, probably of typhoid fever. A month after Lincoln’s second term began, the war ended with the Confederate surrender on April 9, 1865. On April 11, Lincoln gave a speech promoting voting rights for blacks. On April 14, the Lincolns attended a play at Ford’s Theatre. John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor and a Confederate spy, shot Lincoln in the head. He died the next morning. Old Bob was the riderless horse in Lincoln’s funeral procession. Whatever happened to Tabby and Dixie and the other animals, their bond with Lincoln did not end with his death. Abraham Lincoln (1809– 1865) was the first U. S. pres- ident known to have brought family felines into theWhite House. He had a great regard for cats and spent time with them during his stressful years as president during the Civil War. Photograph by Alexander Gardner, 1863. From the Presidential File Col- lection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, https:// www.loc.gov/item/96522529/, accessed November 30, 2022. Free to use under the Unsplash License . “I am in favor of animals rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being.” — Abraham Lincoln, February 12, 1809–April 15, 1865 A Whole Human Being Abraham Lincoln’s Kittens Were the Original First Felines by Rowena Mills FOCUS ON FELINES Dr. Virginia A. Schultz 9225 5. 1-35 Service Rd., Oklahoma City, OK 73160 (405) 616-EYES (3937) Fax (405) 631-3937 E Y E C A R E C L I N I C F O R A N I M A L S FreetoLiveOK sanctuary for homeless dogs and cats 405.282.8617 FreetoLiveOK.org Providing mobile ultrasound services to local veterinarians in their hospital (405) 742-7787 ovdionline@gmail.com https://ovdionline.com/ Dr. Jennifer Neitman, DVM, DACVR