Did Abraham Lincoln have goats at the White House?
Yes. His son Tad kept two goats, Nanny and Nanko, and the record keeps their mischief: a chair sled driven through a state reception, flower beds eaten, a goat found resting in the middle of a boy's bed. In this episode of Our Next Collar, Nanny returns to tell the quieter part: a president who came out to the lawn at two in the morning, through the hardest middle of his war, and sat down next to a goat.
History remembers the famous. Their pets remember the person. On Our Next Collar, a brown tabby cat named Prince MoRee reaches the pets of history. One of them tells what they really saw. Tonight, a goat who watched the most burdened man in America learn to stop, and who showed up at the fence every time she heard his step. True, surprising, and funnier than history has any right to be. Great for curious kids and the grown-ups listening with them.
This episode is fully scripted and has passed the Talking With Pets accuracy review. The recording is in production. The audio player and the full transcript will appear right here the day the episode goes live. Join the founding list below and we will write to you when it does.
From the episode
Moose: (setting his notebook aside) Nanny. I have to ask this. It's my last question and it's the one I always ask. Was he happy?
Nanny: (a beat) Sometimes. The other times, he was out here with me. Which I believe was the closest available.
Nanny: He looked at you. Not through you the way important people often look at animals. At you. Like there was something worth paying attention to.
Moose: That's how you know. How someone treats an animal when there's nothing in it for them. That's how you know who they actually are.
Nanny and Nanko, the chair sled through the East Room, the eaten flower beds, and Nanny's disappearance by August 1863 are all real. Her voice is ours.
Sources and further reading
- Nanny lost by August 1863: “Tell dear Tad, poor ‘Nanny Goat,’ is lost; and Mrs. Cuthbert & I are in distress about it.” Abraham Lincoln to Mary Todd Lincoln, August 8, 1863. The Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress. loc.gov
- Nanny eating the flower beds and found resting on Tad's bed; Nanko's chair-sled run through the East Room state reception. Presidential Pet Museum, “Abraham Lincoln's goats.” presidentialpetmuseum.com
- The Emancipation Proclamation, effective January 1, 1863. National Archives, founding and Civil War documents. archives.gov
- Willie Lincoln's death, February 20, 1862, age eleven. Documented in the Lincoln family record; White House Historical Association. whitehousehistory.org
- “I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.” Authenticated Lincoln, documented from an 1864 conversation. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. presidentlincoln.illinois.gov
- The cats-and-kittens saying: on the standard list of unproven quotations attributed to Lincoln, and flagged as such inside the episode. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. presidentlincoln.illinois.gov
- Lincoln's sleepless wartime nights, grounding the 2am lawn scenes. John Hay's diaries; Mary Lincoln's letters.
All historical claims above were checked in the Talking With Pets accuracy review, most recently the full editorial pass of July 2026.
Did Abraham Lincoln have goats at the White House?
Yes. Lincoln's young son Tad kept two goats, Nanny and Nanko. Nanny is documented eating the White House flower beds and being found resting in the middle of Tad's bed. She was lost by August 1863: Lincoln himself wrote "Tell dear Tad, poor Nanny Goat, is lost." Source: Lincoln's letter of August 8, 1863; Presidential Pet Museum.
Did a goat really pull a chair through a White House reception?
Yes, and it was Nanko, the other goat. Tad harnessed a chair to Nanko like a sled and drove it the full length of the East Room through a formal state reception, guests parting and hoop skirts lifted, while Lincoln watched mid-handshake. Source: period accounts; Presidential Pet Museum.
What happened to Nanny the goat?
She was lost by August 1863 and never found. The record is Lincoln's own letter of August 8, 1863: "Tell dear Tad, poor Nanny Goat, is lost; and Mrs. Cuthbert and I are in distress about it." The episode honors this: Nanny witnesses the hard middle of the war and says plainly that she never saw how the story finished. Source: the Abraham Lincoln Papers.
Did Lincoln really say that about cats and kittens?
Probably not. The saying that no matter how much cats fight there always seem to be plenty of kittens appears on the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum's list of unproven quotations. The episode flags it in-world as a saying people like to put in his mouth, not a documented quote. The mercy quote in the episode, "I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice," is authenticated Lincoln.
What is Our Next Collar, and is it good for kids?
Our Next Collar is an educational history podcast for curious kids ages 6 to 10 and the grown-ups listening with them. A brown tabby cat named Prince MoRee reaches the pets of history, and one of them tells the true story of the person they knew. Every episode lists its sources and says plainly which parts are real and which are ours, which makes it a quiet lesson in how to weigh sources. It is a podcast from Talking With Pets.
Our Next Collar · the true stories only the animals saw.
Chaco, Roxie, Moose, Prince MoRee, and Armando are getting the pilot ready. Join the founding list and we will write to you when the first episodes go live. Listen with someone you like.