
White House photo by Pete Souza
How’s that for a pedigree?
Rumors abounded earlier this weekend, but now it’s official. President Obama has fulfilled at least one of his campaign promises and given daughters Sasha and Malia a puppy.
The first family has settled on a first pet, a 6-month-old Portuguese water dog that the Obama girls are naming Bo.
The selection was one of the White House’s most tightly kept secrets.
President Barack Obama’s daughters, 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha, picked a black and white pup, a White House official speaking on the condition of anonymity told The Associated Press Saturday night.
The dog is a gift from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who owns several Portuguese water dogs himself.
Actually, I need to point out that the AP story above is slightly wrong. The dog wasn’t a gift from Senator Kennedy. That would be illegal. Bo, who shares the same lineage as Ted Kennedy’s two Portuguese water dogs, is actually being “re-homed” from the Texas kennel where he was living, something the Obamas have to do to avoid ethics violations.
Bo will have his first official press conference this Tuesday, when he will be presented to the Obamas by Senator Kennedy.
The girls chose the name Bo because their grandfather–Michelle Obama’s father– was nicknamed “Bo” (after Bo Diddley) and because their cousin has a cat named Bo. And, presumably because they wanted to give all the pun-happy headline writers in the mainstream media an excuse to dust off all those old “Bo knows” jokes. I’ll also bet you a whole dollar that I won’t be able to make it through the day tomorrow without hearing some cheesey news anchor utter the words “Who let the dogs in?” I refuse to participate.
Although not from a shelter, the dog was technically homeless, having been returned to the kennel by a previous owner who decided he could not care for the dog. Even so, some animal rights activists are upset that the First Family didn’t opt to adopt a dog from a D.C. area shelter.