Did Theodore Roosevelt keep a badger in the White House?
Yes, for a little while. A Kansas girl offered the President a baby badger in 1903, and Josiah rode the President's train across the West, squealing for the man who fed him. At the White House the children greeted him, in their father's words, with the wildest enthusiasm. In this episode of Our Next Collar, Josiah tells the story, with Armando, who had prepared a velvet cushion.
Plays from this site.
Season 1 · Episode 7 · Josiah, re: Theodore Roosevelt · Prince MoRee with Armando · About 7 minutes
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Josiah was a baby badger given to President Theodore Roosevelt in Kansas in the spring of 1903. In this episode he tells about the train ride across the West on milk and potatoes, the Grand Canyon, the White House children, and the boy who carried him everywhere and stood up for him. Badgers are wild animals, and today we leave them in the wild. Our Next Collar is an educational history podcast from Talking With Pets, made for curious kids and the grown-ups listening with them: a brown tabby cat named Prince MoRee talks with the pets of history's greatest figures, who tell the true story of the person they knew.
Transcript
Opening
Prince MoRee: Tonight, we gather again, talking with pets from the past. Armando, are we ready?
Armando: Ready. And dressed for the occasion.
Prince MoRee: Tonight we call to a fellow pet across the years and through the veil. A pet, just like us, who rode the President's train across the American West.
Armando: A traveler! I have prepared a cushion. Tonight, we call for Josiah.
The summons
Prince MoRee: Armando. The cushion may not be necessary.
Armando: Every guest deserves a cushion.
Prince MoRee: This guest is a badger.
Armando: Ah.
Prince MoRee: Josiah of the White House. Young American badger. Passenger on the President's train, 1903. Join us!
Josiah: Where's the dirt? There's no dirt in here.
Armando: Welcome, Josiah! Do come in. A velvet cushion, just for you.
Josiah: I see it. I'm going to dig under it.
Armando: Of course. Make yourself at home, if you please.
Kansas
Prince MoRee: You were a gift to President Theodore Roosevelt.
Josiah: Kansas. A Sunday in the spring of 1903.[3] A boy named Josiah caught me on his family's ranch.
Armando: A boy named Josiah. And you are also named...
Josiah: Josiah. After the boy. The President named me himself. He said I could be Josh for short.
Armando: Josh! So friendly!
Josiah: I was not friendly yet. I was very small and very surprised.
Prince MoRee: And it was the boy's sister who asked the President if he would like you.
Josiah: She asked if he'd like a baby badger. He said yes. Of course he said yes. That man said yes to everything.
Armando: Naturally! Who would say no to a badger?
Josiah: Most people.
The train
Armando: And then?
Josiah: Then I lived on a train. The President's train, going all the way across the West.
Armando: A private train! With velvet seats?
Josiah: I didn't see any velvet. I mostly saw a man named Dulany. He fed me.
Armando: And what does a traveling badger eat?
Josiah: Milk. And potatoes.[2]
Armando: Only milk and potatoes?
Josiah: I was a baby. Babies don't get to order.
Armando: And if you wanted more?
Josiah: I squealed. The men on the train said it sounded like I was calling his name. Du LAY nee. Du LAY nee.[2]
Armando: You called for your waiter!
Josiah: He always came.
Prince MoRee: Where did the train go?
Josiah: Mountains. Deserts. And I'm told, the Grand Canyon.
Armando: The Grand Canyon! And what did the President say there?
Josiah: He told the people not to build anything on it. No hotels. No cottages. He said, "Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it."[4]
Armando: Very wise.
Josiah: I agreed. I like a big hole in the ground.
Armando: Of course you do.
Josiah: That man loved wild places. He wanted them kept for everybody. Even badgers.
The White House
Armando: And then, at last, the White House!
Josiah: June. The train came home and the children came running.
Armando: How many children?
Josiah: Enough that nobody counted. Plus a pony, a big parrot with an enormous beak, a lizard named Bill, and some guinea pigs.
Armando: A full house! Did they welcome you properly?
Josiah: The President said they greeted me "with the wildest enthusiasm."[3] We had "an affectionate but passionate day."
Armando: What does that mean?
Josiah: There was hugging. And squealing.
Armando: And biting?
Josiah: Legs. Only legs.
Prince MoRee: This is why badgers belong outdoors.
Armando: Indoors is for cushions.
Archie
Prince MoRee: There was one boy in particular.
Josiah: Archie. He was nine. He carried me everywhere, squeezed tight around the middle.[1]
Armando: Around the middle?
Josiah: Around what would have been my waist, if I had one.
Armando: You had no waist!
Josiah: Badgers come in one shape. Wide.
Armando: And when he put you down?
Josiah: We played tag. He ran. I chased. I nipped his ankles.
Armando: That is not how tag works.
Josiah: It's how badger tag works.
Prince MoRee: And the President?
Josiah: He told the boy it would be very unpleasant if I ever bit his face.
Armando: A fair point.
Josiah: The boy was insulted. On my behalf. He said, "He bites legs sometimes, but he never bites faces."[1]
Armando: He stood up for you.
Josiah: Nobody stands up for a badger. He did.
Summer
Prince MoRee: And what was the President like, at home?
Josiah: Loud. Happy. All the time. That summer, at their country house by the water, the children dragged him into the barn to play hide and seek in the hay.
Armando: The President? In the hay?
Josiah: He said it was "rather odd for a stout, elderly President to be bouncing over hay ricks."[6]
Armando: Bouncing!
Josiah: He bounced. Badgers don't bounce.
Quietly
Armando: Josiah. What was the best part?
Josiah: Being carried. Everybody else saw teeth. Archie saw me.
Armando: Oh, my friend.
Josiah: By fall I was bigger, with real digging claws. I think a badger needs dirt, not floors. Then I went to live at a big zoo in New York.[5]
Armando: Did they have dirt for you there?
Josiah: I found some. Badgers always do. But nobody carried me around by my middle anymore. I only ever liked that from Archie.
Close
Prince MoRee: Thank you, Josiah.
Josiah: You can keep the cushion. I dug you a nice hole under it.
Armando: Mi cojín. Gracias. I think.
Prince MoRee: Legs sometimes. Never faces.
Prince MoRee: (a note) Here is a bit more of the true story behind tonight's guest.
In the spring of 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt rode a train across the American West. On a Sunday in Sharon Springs, Kansas, a little girl offered him a baby badger that her brother Josiah had caught, and the President named the badger Josiah.[2][3] On the train he was fed milk and potatoes.[2] On that same trip, Roosevelt asked Americans to leave the Grand Canyon as it is, and he camped in Yosemite with the naturalist John Muir.[4] In June, Josiah reached the White House, where the Roosevelt children welcomed him with, in their father's words, the wildest enthusiasm.[3] One of the boys, by most accounts Archie, carried him everywhere, and when his father worried, the boy said, "He bites legs sometimes, but he never bites faces."[1] That fall, Josiah moved to the Bronx Zoo in New York.[5] Badgers are wild animals, and today we leave them in the wild.
Josiah, the Kansas gift, milk and potatoes on the train, the Du LAY nee squeal, the wildest enthusiasm, the boy who carried him, and "he bites legs sometimes, but he never bites faces" are all real. Josiah's voice is ours.
Sources and further reading
- “He bites legs sometimes, but he never bites faces,” and the boy who carried the badger about “clasped firmly around what would have been his waist.” Theodore Roosevelt, An Autobiography (1913), chapter IX, “Outdoors and Indoors.” standardebooks.org
- Josiah named and called Josh, fed milk and potatoes on the train, and squealing in a way the porters said sounded like Dulany's name. Roosevelt's letters to his children, May 10, 1903, in Joseph Bucklin Bishop, ed., Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to His Children (1919). gutenberg.org
- The gift in Sharon Springs, Kansas, on Sunday, May 3, 1903 (the Center's record of Roosevelt's remarks there is dated May 2; the Sunday scene is told by Edmund Morris in Theodore Rex), and the welcome home: Josiah “hailed with the wildest enthusiasm by the children.” Theodore Roosevelt Center, Dickinson State University: remarks at Sharon Springs and letters of June 1903. theodorerooseveltcenter.org
- The Grand Canyon, May 6, 1903: “Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it.” The American Presidency Project, “Remarks at the Grand Canyon, Arizona.” And Roosevelt camping in Yosemite with John Muir: National Park Service, “Roosevelt, Muir, and the Grace of Place.” presidency.ucsb.edu; nps.gov
- Josiah's move to the Bronx Zoo in the fall of 1903. Wildlife Conservation Society Archives Blog, “The Gift of an Angry Badger” (2015). wcsarchivesblog.org
- The summer romps and hide and seek in the hay at Oyster Bay. Roosevelt's letters of August 1903, in Letters to His Children (1919). gutenberg.org
The facts in this episode come from a written, sourced fact-check, and the script was reviewed again before recording (October 2026). The transcript on this page is the script the episode was recorded from.
Questions people ask
Did Theodore Roosevelt keep a badger?
Yes. In the spring of 1903, in Sharon Springs, Kansas, a girl offered Roosevelt a baby badger that her brother Josiah had caught. Roosevelt named it Josiah, Josh for short, and wrote to his children that on the train it ate milk and potatoes and squealed for its keeper, Dulany. Josiah reached the White House in June, and that fall he went to live at the Bronx Zoo in New York. Source: Roosevelt's letters to his children, May 10, 1903; Theodore Roosevelt Center; Wildlife Conservation Society archives.
What did Roosevelt say at the Grand Canyon?
On the same 1903 trip, Roosevelt urged Americans to leave the Grand Canyon as it is: "You cannot improve on it." He also camped in Yosemite with the naturalist John Muir. Source: The American Presidency Project; National Park Service.
Who carried Josiah around the White House?
One of the Roosevelt boys, by most accounts nine-year-old Archie. Roosevelt wrote that the boy who owned the badger used to carry him about, held firmly around what would have been his waist if he had had one, and that the boy said, "He bites legs sometimes, but he never bites faces." Source: Roosevelt, An Autobiography (1913), chapter IX.
Is it a good idea to keep a badger as a pet?
No. Badgers are wild animals, and today we leave them in the wild. Josiah went to live at a zoo within months of reaching the White House.
What is Our Next Collar, and is it good for kids?
Our Next Collar is an educational history podcast made for curious kids and the grown-ups listening with them. A brown tabby cat named Prince MoRee talks with the pets of history's greatest figures, who tell the true story of the person they knew. Each episode page lists its sources and says which parts are from the record and which are ours, which makes it a quiet lesson in how to weigh sources. It is a podcast from Talking With Pets.