WASHINGTON — Who let the dog out?
That’s the Washington mystery du jour.
The identity of the first puppy — the one that the Washington press corps has been yelping about for months, the one President Obama has seemed to delight in dropping hints about — leaked out today. This despite White House efforts to delay the news until the big debut planned for Tuesday afternoon.
The little guy is a six-month-old Portuguese water dog given to the Obama girls as a gift by that Portuguese water dog-lovin’ senator himself, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. Malia and Sasha named it Bo; their cousins have a cat named Bo and first lady Michelle Obama’s father was nicknamed Diddley, a source said. (Get it? Bo … Diddley?)
Bo’s a handsome little guy. Well suited for formal occasions at the White House, he’s got tuxedo-black fur, with a white chest, white paws and a rakish white goatee.
Clearly, the identity of the dog was information too big to contain. A mysterious Web site called FirstDogCharlie.com published a puppy picture this morning, complete with a Q and A with the dog, which it said was originally named Charlie. The celebrity gossip Web site TMZ.com linked to the picture. So much for the big White House unveiling.
The affair was another hard lesson for Obama’s tight-knit team, which had considerable success at controlling information and leaking tidbits to different news outlets during the campaign. But once Obama took office, that proved more difficult. With more wide-ranging sources of information available, word leaked to the media of major nominations, as well as the tax problems that sank former South Dakota senator Tom Daschle’s bid to become the White House health czar.
So it went with Bo’s story.
In mid-March, word on the street was that the White House was going to plant a vegetable garden. A Washington Post food reporter was making calls, probing, pushing. But the White House was mum. Word filtered out that the exclusive had been promised to The New York Times. But the White House offered a mollifier: The puppy exclusive is yours.
The newspaper that cracked Watergate was happy to have the puppy story.
These kinds of arrangements get made all the time in Washington but seldom are discussed publicly. The puppy deal seemed to be holding up. Sure, reporters here and there nipped at the story. There were hints that the puppy was a gift. There were reports that the Kennedys were involved — but the senator’s press people professed no knowledge.
But then came this morning. The FirstDogCharlie site included a photograph of a Portuguese water dog that looked exactly like the dog in a White House photo — right down to the multicolored lei — that The Washington Post was getting ready to publish on the front page of its Sunday paper. (FirstDogCharlie was registered anonymously on Friday on the Web site GoDaddy.com.)
Still, there’s lots of stuff that didn’t leak out, including a secret get-acquainted session with the family at the White House a few weeks ago. The visit, known around the White House as “The Meeting,” was a surprise for the girls. Bo wore a lei then, too.
Bo charmed the first family, a source who was there said. He sat when the girls sat, stood when the girls stood. He made no toileting errors and did not gnaw on the furniture. Bo has, after all, been receiving lessons in good behavior from the Kennedys’ dog trainers. These lessons have been taking place at a secret, undisclosed location outside Washington.
Bo, though he was raised elsewhere, already has a keen sense of who’s in charge inside the Beltway. When the president walked across the room during the visit, Bo followed obediently.
“He’s sooooo cute,” the source said, referring, let us be clear, to the puppy. “It’s very exciting. They had a great meeting.”
Sasha was excited; Malia focused on all the “responsibility issues” — how will Bo be trained, cared for, etc.
“Malia has done extensive research,” the source said.
Just in case Portie-mania ensues — how could it not, after all this buildup? — a staffer warns that Porties “are not for everyone. They’re very energetic. They play, play, play. Then they sleep.”
They also need a lot of room to run. Fortunately, the White House has a lot of lawn.
Some issues remain to be resolved. Where, for instance, will Bo sleep? The White House has plenty of rooms to choose from, but the great question of whether he’ll get to bunk with one or both of the girls remains undecided.
All of this is new to the first family. Sasha and Malia have never had pets. And neither the first lady nor the president had dogs growing up.
During the campaign, word surfaced that Obama had promised a dog to his girls. Since then, he has been hounded constantly about the choice. Precious moments in most of his first major interviews as president-elect and then as president were dedicated to the puppy question.
The Labradoodle and the Portuguese water dog were always in the running because they are considered good pets for children who have allergies, as Malia does.
In a statement, the Kennedys said: “We couldn’t be happier to see the joy that Bo is bringing to Malia and Sasha. We love our Portuguese Water Dogs and know that the girls — and their parents — will love theirs, too.”
The choice of a Portie raised one complication. The Obamas have long said they wanted a rescue dog. But the carefully bred Porties almost never end up in shelters. Bo had been living with another family, but it wasn’t a good fit, so the Kennedys acquired him for the Obamas.
As for the rescue pledge, the Obamas came up with a solution intended to lend a serious symbolic note: They’re going to make a donation to the D.C. Humane Society.
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