Obamas’ dog Bo celebrates his ‘first 100 days’

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It’s been a hectic few months, no doubt, for Bo, the Obama family’s Portuguese water dog. Since word leaked about the first family’s new puppy a few days before Bo was officially paraded around the White House lawn in his first public appearance, just about every aspect of Bo’s life has been scrutinized.

PETA fretted about whether he would be neutered (turns out, by the time the Obamas brought him home, he already was). People Magazine pointed out that it looked like First Lady Michelle Obama was doing more than her fair share of the work of caring for Bo, despite the fact that the president told reporters in December, ‘I want to make sure my daughters take care of this dog, and if they do their business, and you’ve got some poop, you don’t just leave it there.’ All this attention on the first dog prompted former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich to call the hoopla ‘fairly stupid’ during an appearance on ABC News’ ‘This Week.’

Time has flown, and now -- would you believe it? -- Bo has been ‘in office’ for 100 days. To celebrate this milestone, Animal Planet has launched an interactive Web feature dedicated to the first dog, complete with a ‘Do you know Bo?’ quiz, a photo gallery, presidential pet trivia and even first-person (first-pup?) diary entries written from Bo’s point of view.

But Animal Planet isn’t the only place you can read Bo’s first-person musings. Writing in the first dog’s ‘voice’ is so popular, in fact, that the New York Times, that bastion of journalistic ideals, published an op-ed piece ostensibly written by Bo (actually penned by writer Ben Greenman) commemorating his first 100 days in the White House. And a Twitter account, Bo_The_Dog, has even popped up; it claims to offer followers a dog’s-eye view of the Beltway.

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-- Lindsay Barnett