Billy

Billy was a wild opossum that the Hoover family semi-tamed — a scrappy little marsupial given a custom treehouse on the White House lawn during the Great Depression.

When Herbert Hoover became president in 1929, the country was on the brink of the Great Depression. But even in hard times, the White House was home to an unusual collection of pets. Among them was Billy, a Virginia opossum who had been found wandering the White House grounds.

The Hoovers, particularly Mrs. Hoover, had a soft spot for animals. They decided to keep Billy rather than shoo him away. The White House staff built a special treehouse enclosure for Billy on the White House lawn, where he lived in relative comfort. Billy was semi-tame — he would come out for food and tolerate being handled by the Hoovers, but he was still very much a wild animal at heart.

Billy was not the only unusual pet the Hoovers kept. The family also had two alligators (which lived in the White House conservatory), a bear, and various other animals. But Billy was special because he was a native wild creature who chose to stay. He became a minor celebrity, with newspapers running stories about the White House opossum.

When the Hoovers left the White House in 1933, Billy was released back into the wild. He was a creature of the grounds, not the presidency, and he returned to the life he'd known before — a small, scrappy opossum in the woods of Washington, D.C.

Billy — The White House Possum · uncommon

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