Abe & Fido

[LincolnToddFan]

Where is Gene? Does he know about this book on Fido?

All of the Lincoln kids inherited their father's fondness for animals. The only one I've never a critter story about was Robert. The Seward family gifted Willie and Tad with kittens when they first moved into the WH.

There is a book that was allegedly ghostwritten by Mariah Vance who was a freed slave who worked for the Lincolns in their Springfield days. Many stories in the book have been dismissed by scholars as dubious and apocryphal, and I tend to agree. But there is one concerning two of the family felines getting into a nasty fight...little Willie and Tad broke up the hostilities and tried to force the kitties to reconcile by making them "kiss" one another because as they told it "that's what Ma and Pa make us do when we fight".

Predictably it did not end well. Both little boys ended up getting mauled with nasty scratches!