We NEED to talk about Emily Spinach. True, there are more than 100 other presidential pets in this illustrated guide to all the animals who've called the White House home, but one slithers to the top of heap. That's Emily Spinach, President Theodore Roosevelt's snake, and while little is known about her serpentine life in the early 20th century, I've set out to learn everything about her. Here's what I've got so far: She was the pet garter snake of Roosevelt's daughter Alice, who chose the name "Emily Spinach" because she "was as green as spinach and as thin as my Aunt Emily." Clever, but I must know more. Where did the lithe and limbless Emily Spinach rank among the President's three-dozen pets (which also included a hyena, a BEAR(!) and a pair of kangaroo rats)? Are her descendants wriggling around the White House grounds today? Where was her Presidential Medal of Freedom, Teddy?! Presidential pet biographers, if you're reading this, please pursue an in-depth dissection (a literary one, that is) of the great Emily Spinach's time in the nation's capital.
