The White House just did not seem complete without a pet to round out the first family. When President and Mrs. Obama entered the White House with their daughters, they immediately set out to find just the right canine companion to keep them company in their new home. They decided on Bo, now known as Bo the Obama Dog. Bo is a Portuguese water dog, with a curly black coat and a white strip on his chest and white boots on his front paws.
His name, Bo, is reported to have been determined by two different factors. First, the girls wanted to name the pup after their cousin’s cat, and second, he has been named after one of President Obama’s favorite musical artist, Bo Diddly.
There was some controversy when the Obamas first chose Bo as their new family pet. Animal rights groups and rescue organizations would have liked the first family to have chosen a dog from a shelter or a rescue, while Bo was from a breeder. President Obama’s response to these concerns was that they did, indeed, look at shelters; however, due to his daughter’s allergies, they were forced to find a breed that is hypoallergenic, which meant that they could not choose a dog of mixed breeds.
Bo is, in fact, a second chance dog, however, He had been adopted to keep an older dog company, but the two dogs had not gotten along and Bo was given back to the breeder. In this way, he is still a rescue of sorts.
