India "Willie"

India — affectionately nicknamed "Willie" or "Kitty" — was the George W. Bush family's black shorthair cat and one of the First Pets during his two terms in the White House. Adopted in 1990 when daughter Barbara Bush was a child, India took her name from Texas Rangers baseball player Rubén "El Indio" Sierra, a favourite of the baseball-loving family. When George W. Bush became President in 2001, the elderly cat moved into the White House alongside the famous Scottish Terriers Barney and Miss Beazley, becoming a quiet, dignified fixture of the residence. Unlike the boisterous dogs, India was a reserved and private cat who largely kept out of the public eye, though she appeared in official holiday photographs and on the White House website's pet pages. She lived to the remarkable age of nearly nineteen, dying in January 2009 in the final weeks of the Bush presidency — prompting a formal statement from the White House, a rare honour for a First Cat and a measure of the affection the family held for their long-lived companion.