Fala (
1940-
1952) was a little
Scottish Terrier belonging to President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Fala lived in the
White House and accompanied
FDR around the world. This prompted a rumor during FDR’s
1944 reelection campaign that the president had accidentally left Fala behind in the
Aleutian Islands and had sent a
destroyer to fetch the dog, a rumor that was obviously false. Roosevelt replied: "These
Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala. Well, of course, I don't resent such attacks, and my family doesn't resent attacks, but Fala does."
Fala outlived the President and was buried near him when he died. The dog was immortalized in print, on film, with a postage stamp, and most notably, sitting on Roosevelt’s lap in a statue of him in the
Roosevelt Memorial in
Washington, DC.