Was there really a presidential raccoon?

Yes!
The raccoon’s name was Rebecca and she was U.S. president Coolidge (Republican) and First Lady’s pet raccoon!

The story is that she was actually sent to the White House from Mississippi in 1926 and originally had been sent to be Thanksgiving dinner.

But the president fell in love with her and granted her a pardon. She was treated pretty much how you’d think a presidential raccoon would be treated, they even built a special wooden house in a tree, just for her!

She even got to be a part of the family summer trip alongside the couples 5 canaries & 2 white collies (Rob Roy and Prudence Prim) on a 1,800-mile railroad trip to the Black Hills in South Dakota for a 3-month vacation.

In true trash panda fashion, she would escape her cage and climb up the tallest tree behind their summer home, making the secret service really work for their money as they’d have to spend hours trying to get her down.

The Coolidge’s were actually known for being animal lovers and were sent many pets as gifts.

In his autobiography, he said, “we always had more dogs than we could take care of”.

They were sent dogs, cats, canaries, and even a black-haired bear from Mexico, an African pygmy hippo, and a pair of lion cubs.

They named the cubs “Tax Reduction” and “Budget Bureau”.

All these pet names make us wonder why Rebecca got such a boring name?

Like why not at the very least Rebecca the Republicoon?

The article source is written by hawkeye.ca a Bird and Animal Control ( Raccoon Removal ) Company in Toronto