President Lincoln had cats in the White House

[David Lockmiller]

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

“At one point, he told a friend that Dixie was ‘smarter than his entire cabinet’ and ‘didn’t talk back, which was a bonus,’” Mr. Hager said.

(Source: A Cat Is Said to Be Joining the Bidens in the White House, New York Times, November 28, 2020.)