Politics

From Nicotine-Addicted Rams To Tiger Cubs: Mo Rocca Talks About White House Pets

By Michelle Levi

April 10, 2009 / 2:10 PM EDT / CBS News

(AP Photo)

With the highly anticipated announcement of the Obama's puppy arrival on the horizon, presidential pets are in the spotlight. Did you know that a drunk with a broken bottle killed President Lincoln's dog after his assassination? Or that Teddy Roosevelt had thirty-six pets in the White House?

CBS News' Sunday Morning funny man Mo Rocca does. And he talks about it on CBSNews.com's 'Washington Unplugged.' He wrote a book called 'All The President's Pets' which is a walk through the legacy of First Pets from snakes and badgers to nicotine-addicted rams .

Rocca has his own suggestion for the first family's pet – not a dog but a vicuna, which is an obscure relative of the aplaca.

"I was kind of hoping that Obama would go out of the box and make like one of our pre-World War II presidents and get a different kind of pet," the comedian said. "I was pushing for a vicuna. Everybody remembers Dwight Eisenhower's Chief of Staff Sherman Adams and the scandal over the gift of a vicuna coat from a lobbyist and that really tarred the name of the vicuna for a long time."

He also introduced the acronym "PWD" into common vernacular as an alternative to Portugese Water Dog, one of the two breeds the Obamas are considering.

Watch the hilarious interview: