First Dogs: American Presidents and Their Best Friends

If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog," Harry Truman once said. Maybe that's why, for many of our Republic's 220 years, there have been two top dogs at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue--one with two legs and one with four. FIRST DOGS, by veteran journalist Roy Rowan and photo researcher Brooke Janis, tells the whole doggone story, from the days before there was a White House to the dog days of Bill Clinton's presidency. FIRST DOGS is packed with drawings and paintings from early American history, plus photographs of canines from Abraham Lincoln's Fido to Zeke, the cocker spaniel that the Clintons owned in Arkansas. Laddie Boy, Fala, Pushinka, King Timahoe, and Liberty are just a few of the four-footed goodwill ambassadors who have left their mark on the American consciousness (and not just the East Lawn). "FIRST DOGS is a doggone delight that will leave you sitting up and begging for more. I give it four paws up."--Dan rather, CBS Evening News; "Intriguing information and fascinating trivia."--Chattanooga Times.