24. Thomas Jefferson and Dogs
Americans tend to like dogs, and tend to like politicians who like dogs. Other than kissing babies, few things offer politicians a shorter cut to voters’ affection than to display affection towards dogs. Thomas Jefferson was a dog lover at some point. However, his view of dogs underwent a complete and outright nutty reversal in his lifetime. In 1789, at the end of his stint as America’s ambassador to France, Jefferson liked dogs just fine. He especially liked shepherd dogs, and went out of his way to get some.
As he put it in a letter to a friend, Jefferson spent the eve of his departure: “[R]oving thro the neighborhood of this place to try to get a pair of shepherd’s dogs. We walked 10 miles, clambering the cliffs in quest of the shepherds, during the most furious tempest of wind and rain I was ever in“. He came across a human corpse in his journey, but no shepherd dogs. He lucked out the next day, however, and managed to buy “a chienne bergere big with pup“. That affection did not last.