
![](https://res.cloudinary.com/dde1q4ekv/image/upload/v1779507900/rfk-and-his-dog-freckles-v0-czqezg77kurd1_sbcp5i.webp)

I was watching _[Bobby Kennedy for President](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Kennedy_for_President)_ last week and laughed when Kennedy, after learning that he won the Democratic primary in California—and just before he was shot—said the following about his dog, Freckles:

> I want to express my gratitude to my dog, Freckles, who’s been maligned. I don’t care what they say—as Franklin Roosevelt said—“I don’t care what they say about me, but when they start to attack my dog. . .”

Kennedy then embraces a sly grin, and the crowd erupts in cheers and laughter.

I also just finished [_FDR_ by Jean Edward Smith](https://bookshop.org/p/books/fdr-jean-edward-smith/f5f978a622af6a60), and found the quote that Kennedy was referring to:

> These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or my sons. No, they now include my little dog, Fala. Well, of course, I don’t resent attacks, and my family doesn’t resent attacks, but Fala does resent them. You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress had concocted a story that I had left him behind on an Aleutian Island and had sent a destroyer back to find him—at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three, or eight or twenty million dollars—his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since. I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself . . . but I think I have a right to resent, to object to libelous statements about my dog.

It was also pretty funny that, after Kennedy thanked Freckles, he said:

> I'm not doing this in order of importance, but I also want to thank my wife, Ethel. [Loud laughter and cheers.]

![](https://res.cloudinary.com/dde1q4ekv/image/upload/v1779507905/150917-fdr-fala-09_jotrs8.jpg)

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