One of President Obama's top priorities was getting a dog for his girls - apparently a promise he made them during the campaign - a campaign promise if you will. We haven't seen anything about Bo, and the family is always traveling, where is Bo and who is taking care of him? It is a curious thing; we can find old photo's of past First Dogs out with their owners, yet, Bo is left behind...
Let's review, shall we? We had to suffer through endless Nightline, Fox News, CNN, et al blathering about the drama involved with the newly elected First Family and the search for the First Dog. Hell, I think it was Pres. Obama's number one thing to do right after 100 TV spots in 100 days. We all heard how important it was...it was a campaign promise to "the girls" that if Daddy won, they would get a dog. That was all well and good. It did set off some bells and whistles though for those of us in the business of dogs. My wife and I ran/operated Gold Haven Golden Retriever Rescue from '99 until '07. We had a very extensive screening process as did most rescues back then. Being in the Los Angeles area, we would get our share of "celebrity" type applicants; for us, just because you happened to be a "celebrity" didn't mean you were going to be a good dog owner. We knew of the long hours that the TV and Film Industries required of the people that work in that arena - both in front and behind the camera. It all depended on who was going to be the primary care giver to the new dog in their life and how much time they would be with the dog.
Remember when the Clinton's got Buddy at 1600 Penn Ave.? We wouldn't have placed a dog with them, they were never home. Poor Buddy was relegated to being watched for by the staff and eventually suffered the same fate as a lot of unsupervised dogs - he got out and was hit by a car. Why did the Obama's think that it was so important to get a dog? Well, my theory is that they are like a lot of families we would have apply: "we have a new house and a big yard and we want a dog to play in it." Yeah...no. You see, dogs are called "man's best friend" for a reason - they want to be with their people! (well, depending on the breed, some are very independent). The primary thing about most breeds is that they end up bonding to the person/people they are around most often. How much is Bo around the girls if the whole family is always jumping on AF1? I may be wrong...maybe Bo is with them in Ghana right now, if he is, well, never mind. Somehow I don't think Bo is traveling with the FF, I mean we didn't see him running amok at the Pyramids did we? ("Here's First Dog Bo marking the Cheops!", now there's a headline!!)
Point being, those of us that love dogs and make them part of the family would expect to see the dog with his family. If Pres. Obama had always intended to take Michelle and the girls on every trip he makes then he had no business promising the girls a dog. Although in all fairness, that is the only campaign promise he has actually held tight on, isn't it? He's the leader of the free world for crying out loud, he made such a big deal about the dog...where is it? Where is Bo and who is watching him? Whose dog is he? How much time do the girls spend with him? All good questions and all follow up questions we would always ask our adopters just in case a non-dog family actually pulled one over on us. I hope President Obama did'nt pull one over on us, in any area.