Liberty (dog)
Encyclopedia
American Kennel Club
The American Kennel Club is a registry of purebred dog pedigrees in the United States. Beyond maintaining its pedigree registry, this kennel club also promotes and sanctions events for purebred dogs, including the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, an annual event which predates the official...
Registration Number SB578950) was the Golden Retriever
Golden Retriever
The Golden Retriever is a medium-sized breed of dog. They were historically developed as gundogs to retrieve shot waterfowl such as ducks and upland game birds during hunting and shooting parties. As such, they were bred to have a soft mouth to retrieve game undamaged and have an instinctive love...
Presidential pet of Betty Ford
Betty Ford
Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford , better known as Betty Ford, was First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977 during the presidency of her husband Gerald Ford...
and Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
. Liberty was born February 8, 1974 and given to the president as an 8-month-old puppy by his daughter Susan Ford
Susan Ford
Susan Elizabeth Ford Bales is an American author, photojournalist, and former chairman of the board of the Betty Ford Center for alcohol and drug abuse.-Youth:...
and new White House photographer David Hume Kennerly
David Hume Kennerly
David Hume Kennerly in Roseburg, Oregon, won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for his portfolio of photographs taken of the Vietnam War, Cambodia, East Pakistani refugees near Calcutta, and the Ali-Frazier fight in Madison Square Garden, March 8, 1971...
in the fall of 1974. The breeder of the dark gold pup was Avis Friberg of Excelsior, Minnesota
Excelsior, Minnesota
Excelsior is a settlement on Lake Minnetonka in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 2,188 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
Liberty was frequently photographed with Ford in the Oval Office
Oval Office
The Oval Office, located in the West Wing of the White House, is the official office of the President of the United States.The room features three large south-facing windows behind the president's desk, and a fireplace at the north end...
, in the swimming pool at Camp David
Camp David
Camp David is the country retreat of the President of the United States and his guests. It is located in low wooded hills about 60 mi north-northwest of Washington, D.C., on the property of Catoctin Mountain Park in unincorporated Frederick County, Maryland, near Thurmont, at an elevation of...
and on the South Lawn of the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. She also had a litter of pups in the White House on September 14, 1975, one of which – Misty – was kept by Ford. At one point Ford was locked in a White House stairwell after returning from walking the dog on the South Lawn early one morning. Photographs of the dog were autographed with a rubber stamp of her paw print. Stories indicated that if Ford wanted to end a conversation in the Oval Office he would signal Liberty and she would go to the guest wagging her tail creating a natural break.
The dog, along with Ford, was mercilessly parodied by comedian Chevy Chase
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...
on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
sketches in which she was depicted as a stuffed prop.
Ford discussed the dog in a speech on October 9, 1974 in a tribute to William Scranton
William Scranton
William Warren Scranton is a former U.S. Republican Party politician. Scranton served as the 38th Governor of Pennsylvania from 1963 to 1967. From 1976 to 1977, he served as United States Ambassador to the United Nations.-Early life:...
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
:
- This puppy has really taken over the White House. In fact, you may have seen some of us laughing up here during dinner. As I reached in my pocket to get a match to light my pipe, look what I pulled out of the pocket — some dog biscuitDog biscuitA dog biscuit is a hard biscuit-based dietary supplement for dogs or other canine, similar to human snack food.Dog biscuits tend to be hard and dry. Dog biscuits may be sold in a flat bone-shape...
s! [Laughter]
- Let me tell you the story about Susan and Dave and how they bought this dog. I first should preface that the Fords had had two previous golden retrievers. One lived 13 years and died, and then another one died a year ago in August after 9 years. So we are fairly partial, I would say, to golden retrievers.
- Well, Dave and Susan called up a very highly recommended individual who had contacts with the people who raise golden retrievers all over the country. And Dave, as I understand it — who is communicating with the individual up in Minneapolis who happened to have a golden retriever about this age — Dave asked the individual if they had a dog and was it available, and the owner said that they had this 8-month-old golden retriever, but the proprietor or the owner was a little cautious — they're very possessive about these dogs — and he asked in a very nice way who the dog's owner would be.
- And they said, Dave and Susan, that they had to keep it a secret. Well, the kennel owner said that they don't sell dogs that way. He would have to know who the dog's owner would be, and he wanted to know would the dog have a good home.
- So, Dave and Susan very specifically assured the dog owner that it would have a good home. They explained that the parents were friendly and middle-aged and they had four children. The kennel owner said, "That sounds fine. What kind of a house do they live in?"
- Susan and Dave said, "Well, it is a big white house with a fence around it." The kennel owner said, "This is a big dog. Will it have enough to eat? Does the father have a steady job?" Well, on that question, they were stuck a bit. [Laughter]
- Needless to say they got the dog and, in the appropriate spirit of the city of Philadelphia, we have named her "Liberty." One of those inquisitive reporters that we have in Washington asked Susan who is going to take care of Liberty; who is going to feed her and groom her and take her out each night or every morning? And Susan did not hesitate one minute. She said, "Of course, it will be Dad." So, I have this feeling — this is one Liberty that is going to cost me some of mine. [Laughter]
- But in a very broader sense, that is the true nature of liberty. It comes with both privileges and obligations. Freedom, we all know, is seldom free.