This raccoon could have been a president’s Thanksgiving meal. It became a White House pet instead.

A Mississippi resident sent a raccoon in a top-slatted soap box to the White House in November of 1926. The idea was that the animal would be slaughtered and prepared for a Thanksgiving feast, according to news reports. But President Calvin Coolidge didn’t care for raccoon meat. Turkey would suit.

Also this was, first lady Grace Coolidge later wrote, “no ordinary raccoon.” The animal was lively and seemingly tame. So instead of eating the raccoon, the Coolidges, who adored animals, kept her as a pet. They named her Rebecca, and when she was indoors, she roamed the White House apartments. She liked to sit in a bathtub and play with a bar of soap.