Dog Names Ending in aw

Murray the Outlaw was not really a criminal. In fact, he was the dog of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Also known as Fala for Murray the Outlaw of Falahill, this little black Scottish Terrier went everywhere with President Roosevelt. He was born on April 7th, 1940 and given to the president by his distant cousin, Margaret Daisy Suckley as an early Christmas gift. His name was originally Big Boy, but Roosevelt renamed him after a famous Scottish ancestor, John Murray of Falahill. 

The village of Falahill is a small town in the Scottish Borders of Moorfoot Hills in Heriot Parish, which is close to the border of Midlothian. The hill there and its predecessor John Murray of Falahill, whose real name was John Morow, are the inspiration that sparked the name of Outlaw Fala. He was one of the most pawpular and famous presidential pets, and his White House antics were often spoken of in the newspaper and on television. 

The little black pooch was the president’s ‘right-hand man,’ so to speak, and even traveled and attended many important meetings with him. In fact, the Outlaw dog was made an honorary private in the United States Army as a part of a fundraiser effort during World War II. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., better known as MGM, even made a short movie starring the Outlaw about a typical day in the White House and they contributed one dollar to the war effort for every day of that year. 

Also, when the president was campaigning for reelection in 1944, the Republicans accused him of ‘accidentally’ forgetting the Outlaw First Dog in the Aleutian Islands and then spending taxpayers’ money to send a navy ship to go pick him up. However, that story was fake, and Roosevelt claimed that the Republican’s accusations and attacks on him and his wife were not a big deal, but Outlaw took a great disliking to being called out in public. The president stated that the little Scotty was furious and that he had not been the same dog since then. 

So, during the campaign race against New York’s Governor Thomas Dewey, what is known as the ‘Fala Speech’ was credited for getting Roosevelt reelected. In his speech, the esteemed president spoke about the Republican efforts in Congress accusing him of using taxpayers’ money to go pick up his pooch. The entire story was concocted by the Republicans, according to Roosevelt, and the pup was never left behind anywhere. The audience loved it, and everyone said it was the speech that won the presidency for him. 

When President Roosevelt passed away in 1945, Outlaw Fala went to his master’s funeral and walked next to his casket all the way. Then he went to live with Eleanor Roosevelt, the president’s widow in Val-Kill. When the little pooch crossed the Rainbow Bridge in 1952, he was buried close to the Roosevelt tombstone in the Rose Garden, and there is a statue of the Terrier beside Roosevelt in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial as the only presidential pet to be so honored.