Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-12-02
Is to Become of White House Pets When Cooldges Leave

no such episode.
So there they are, this canine quar-
tet, and the big question in the Coolidge
family next March will be, What shall
we do about the dogs?"
For the Coolidge family will return
to simple life when they return to pri-
vate life. And simple life does not in
clude provision for menagerie Of diff
fering canine personalities.
They might observe what many other
American families seem to do under
similar circumstances. They might, in
imagination, listen to q typical CONVEX
sation:
What shall we do with the cat?" says
typical mamma when the family has to
move, drown her?"
mo-" says typical papa, "lets send
her to the President!"
So send her they do.
They have sent the President cats and
dogs for the house and peacocks for the
lawn. They gave him sheep in Dakota.
They sent him lion cub from johann
neSburg in Africa and a wallaby from
Australia and raccoonS from our own
Southland.
Sometimes they send them by express
collect and sometimes they leave them
as foundlings on the front doorstep.
Tige, the brindle cat. arrived in this
latter way. Tige had no history and less
pedigree. Yet it was Tige who achieved
sudden fame ere he departed.
X X X X
EOR one day the President went out
and sat ION the front porch" of the
White House with Tige on his lap.
Every photographer and news-gatherer
in Washington rushed up to take a
look at the spectacle and then broad
cast it.
Some cats and people just can't stand
Importance. The President didn't seer1
to mind it, but Tige disappeared soon
after.
Then there was Blackie. A nurse in
hospital in Waverly, Mass, had no place
to keep him, so she sent him to the
President.
A lot of excitable dogs may tangle up
skein Of daily life, but just one cat can
keep an owner busy If it is Springtime
and that owner is fond of birds.
Mrs. Coolidge loves the robins and
the thrushes, the flickers and hooking
birds and cardinals Of the Washington
Spring. The birds about the White
House grounds are tame by habit. They
nest in the trees and in the roses that
trellis the fences. For five weeks every
ID.
to make sure that Blackie was securely
imprisoned until the nesting Of the birds
was done.
In the midst of it arrived Rebecca the
raccoon in a soap box Slated over the
top and began her exciting White House
biography.
| Like most young coons, she was quick
| to learn. She would take her titbit
| from the Presidents hand and jump
| onto Mrs. Coolidge's shoulder like kit
| ten, or shake hands like pup. Rebecca
was we'll brought up and showed from
her arrival the influences OF q quiet
| home.
Then some one in North Carolina
turned in his present. Reuben the rae
coon arrived.
instantly Rebecca's hitherto amiable
and amenable nature suffered change.
| She became subject to fits OF day
dreaming followed by a mad longing Tor
change.
They had wired in little home Tor
her around one of the trees on the south
| lawn. Rebecca had lived in it content
| edly alone. A short time after Reubens
arrival Rebecca left home.
A detective force turned out TO seek
clues of Rebecca. Then the police force
| turned in. Great sleuthing discovered
her in high tree near the Metropolitan
Club. Then it was the fire departments
turn. They got Rebecca and brought
her back home.
Meanwhile the sleuths had decldeo
that Rebecca had escaped by climbing
| the tree in her Enclosure and dropping
off a branch. The three had been ex-
pertly pruned. So this time they trans
planted the whole tree.
Rebecca escaped again. This time the
sleuthing was easier. She was recovered
from a telegraph pole and was put back
into her cagey home. But Rebecca as
appeared again. She had never gone py
the branch railroad at all. Seemingly
she had slipped her prehensile fingers
through a bend in the wired top OF ner
Enclosure and pulled herself to liberty.
THE tree is back comfortably where
L it used to be now. For Rebecca
and Reuben Raccoon have joined the
peacock, the lion cub and the wallaby
in the National Zoo.
In fact, what could the family OF any
simple presidential person do without
that ZOO? The zoo, where food Is al
WAYS spread, where dingo lays his greasy
head and coyotes find their grassy bed;
the rocky home for creatures wild,
for any one that's natures child; the
ZOO so clean, the zoo so green, the zoo
of shining bars by day and shining stars
by night, the zoo that's every ones
delight
When the President goes away for a
vacation a superhuouS dog Is likely 70
board at the zoo and get vetted by the
military hospital called Walter Reed:
So Rebecca and Reuben Raccoon i've
at the ZOO, Peter Pan and Paul Pry and
Blackberry have new ways OF lie, ana
Beans is eight hours nearer Boston tnan
he used to be, and there are only lew
months more in which discouraged OF
patriotic American families can seno
more presents to the President.
What will they do with the dogs they
have? What will they do-thlS simple
American family-with Ruby Rougn
and with King Cole, with Tiny Tim
and with Calamity Jane?
Tiny Tim, it is said, will be the only
one to walk out in his magnificent furry
dignity and get into the car with the
presidential insignia upon its side and
make that last ride in state toward
Union Station.
But what will they do with the rest
of them?
As for King Kole and Ruby Rough
and the inelegent Diana known as
Calamity Jane why does not the Cool
idge family go on being IKE tne typlCaI
American family-by giving them on the
5th of next March to the PRESIDENT?
twenty thousand men to go to Rich