Famous People and Pets

Anna Sewell, the author of Black Beauty, wrote the novel in order “to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses.” Sewell was born in Norfolk, England, in 1820. At the age of 14, she injured both her ankles and was never able to walk properly again. She frequently got around by driving horse-drawn […]

GEORGE WASHINGTON, our first President, served from 1789-1797. While the White House was not constructed at that time, Washington’s pets can still be considered as “First Pets,” and he had many. Popular and unusual were a Lemur named Jackson and a Messenger Pigeon named Edmond. JOHN ADAMS, 1797-1801, was the first President to live in […]

Pets participated in the Civil War in a number of ways. There were dogs who fought on the front lines, spy dogs, hospital dogs, messenger dogs and prison dogs. Other animals served as mascots for the regiments. Despite orders to the contrary, many soldiers kept pets with them, including dogs, cats, squirrels and raccoons. General […]

Contrary to popular belief, Comanche was not General George A. Custer’s horse. He was the most famous horse in America and was idolized in the latter half of the 1800s. Comanche, a Mustang/Morgan mix, was an army horse, bought in 1868 and sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. There a Captain Myles Keough of the 7th […]

Black Jack was a coal black Morgan/American Quarter Horse mix. He was named after General John J. (Black Jack) Pershing of World War I fame and served in the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment known as The Old Guard. Black Jack was born in Oklahoma, January 19, 1947 and began army life in 1952. He had […]

Steve Irwin was an Australian television personality, wildlife expert, and conservationist. He was born in 1962 to parents who ran the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park. Irwin grew up around reptiles and was extremely comfortable handling them. He worked as a volunteer for Queensland’s East Coast Crocodile Management program, capturing crocodiles for relocation, some to […]

Sir Winston Churchill was a British politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War II. Churchill was also an animal lover. Churchill’s private secretary, Sir John Colville, gave him a cat named “Jock.” Before he died he asked that his home, Chartwell Manor, always keep an orange cat […]