The Golden Retriever is an all-American sort of dog. Well-groomed, good-looking, affable and enthusiastic. Just like everyone running for public office (only much more genuine).

"My platform? The Kitchen Counter!"

Back in 1974, our nation was still stinging from Watergate and hoping for happier times. Enter Honor's Foxfire Liberty Hume, or just "Liberty" to her friends. Liberty was a gift to President Gerald Ford and First Lady Betty from their daughter Susan. The eight-week-old ball of auburn fluff came to a family familiar with Goldens, since the Fords had two before Liberty. As Goldens do, Liberty made herself right at home, camping out with the President in the Oval Office. He even enlisted her help in long meetings, where a hand signal sent her wagging to the talkative guest, creating a natural break. The country was taken with her, and a White House staffer would send out photos with her "paw-to-graph."

"Did you get my good side?"

In 1975, the White House welcomed a litter of Liberty's pups. The first family kept one for their own-a blonde girl they named Misty. During the President's short term, Liberty sat in on high-level briefings, romped in the pool at Camp David, and took Mr. Ford for walks, including one in the middle of the night that found them stuck in a White House stairwell waiting for a rescue by the Secret Service.

And, as was perhaps inevitable, the Oval Office rug once suffered a Liberty accident. When a Navy steward rushed to clean the mess, the president stopped him, saying, "No man should ever have to clean up after another man's dog."  Words to live by, indeed.

"Tell Rockefeller to cool his jets. And, um...are you done with that sandwich?"

When the Fords left the White House in January of 1977, Liberty and Misty went with them to Denver, signaling the end of Liberty's public life. There were more puppies and more walks. She died at the age of 11 in 1984.