A cat is said to join the Bidens in the White House

When he ran for president, Joseph R. Biden Jr. said it was time for a pet to be brought back to the White House.

First it was announced that Champ and Major, the German Shepherds of the President-elect and future First Lady Jill Biden, would roam the White House. And now, after more than a decade of absence, a cat is also joining the ranks of the President’s pets, Jane Pauley of “CBS Sunday morning”Reported on Twitter on Friday.

In one (n Interview with Fox 5 in Washington, D.C.Dr. Biden hinted that she wouldn’t mind having a cat if her husband won the presidency.

“I would like to have a cat,” she said. “I love having animals in the house.”

The breed and name of the cat were not immediately available. Representatives of Mr Biden did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday.

The Bidens will restore a tradition of the President’s pets when they move into the White House in January as President Trump chose not to have a pet during his tenure. But the Bidens cat won’t be the first in the White House.

Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of state William H. Seward gave him two cats, Tabby and Dixie, said Andrew Hager, a historian at the Presidential Pet Museum. Lincoln was a huge “cat fan,” said Hager, and the president often fed Tabby from the dining table despite criticism from his wife.

“He once told a friend that Dixie was” smarter than his entire cabinet “and” didn’t talk back, which was a bonus, “said Hager.

Other presidential cats include Tom Kittenwho belonged to Caroline Kennedy; Shan Shein, the Siamese cat of President Gerald Ford’s daughter Susan; and Misty Malarky Ying Yangthat belonged to President Jimmy Carter’s daughter Amy.

Probably one of the most popular cats in the White House was socks in the Clinton White House.

The black and white cat was the protagonist of an unreleased Super Nintendo game. “Socks the cat rocks the hill“And often received news media attention as he was the only pet in the White House until the Clintons called a chocolate lab called Dude in 1997.

Jennifer Pickens, a White House historian and author of “Pets in the White House: 50 Years of Presidents and Their Pets,” said the advent of the Internet had contributed to Sock’s popularity as a comic book version of the cat visited the city White house for children Website.

The last cat that lives in the White House India (who was also nicknamed Willie), belonged to President George W. Bush. Her time at the White House has often been overshadowed by the two Scottish terriers belonging to the Bush family. Barney and Miss BeazleySaid Mr. Hager.

Protesters in Kerala, India, burned a portrait of Mr. Bush in July 2004 to protest the cat’s name, citing it as an insult to their country, Mr. Hager said. (According to White House ArchivesThe black shorthair cat was named after former Texas Rangers baseball player Ruben Sierra, who was nicknamed El Indio.)

India died in January 2009just before President Bush left the White House.

Interest in the president’s pets has increased over the years as the public became interested in more life stories in the White House, Ms. Pickens said.

Pets can help humanize presidents and improve their image. With the latest addition to the Bidens, they could also represent a president’s hopes for the nation under new leadership.

“Perhaps this is a symbol of Biden’s repeated desire to unite the country,” he said. “I know this is banal, but I’m very curious to see how it works.”