Aug. 18, 1963 - Two happy youngsters got the word today: they will receive White House puppies. The pups, Butterfly and Streaker, are part of the litter born June 14 to Pushinka, the dog given to the Kennedys two years ago by Soviet Premier Khrushchev. The sire is another White House pet, Charlie, a Welsh terrier. The choice of new homes for the brown pups was made by Mrs. Kennedy after sifting through some of the 5,000 letters received by the White House in recent weeks. Butterfly, a female, will go to Karen House, 10 years old, of Westchester, Illinois. Karen had written President Kennedy, asking for one of the puppies because she had never owned a dog. She confessed that she did not know how to spell the name of the dog “who just had the babbies.” Streaker, a male, will go to Mark Bruce, 9, of Columbia, Missouri. Mark, in a penciled letter to Mrs. Kennedy, pleaded for a puppy to replace his own dog, Midget, whom he had accidentally killed while swinging a baseball bat. Mrs. Kennedy’s decision to give away the two puppies was prompted by reports that more than 5,000 children and adults had written to the White House asking for puppies. At the time, Mrs. Kennedy was in the hospital recovering from the Caesarian birth of a son, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, who lived only two days. Butterfly and Streaker will accompany the President to Washington by jet tomorrow morning. There, they will be shipped by air freight to their new homes.
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