The raccoon that U.S. president Calvin Coolidge kept as a pet was originally sent to him for what reason?

Rebecca was a raccoon kept as a pet by US president Calvin Coolidge and First Lady Grace Coolidge.

Rebecca came from Mississippi. She had been sent to the White House to be served for the 1926 Thanksgiving dinner. Since the 1913 death of Horace Vose, the traditional provider of the White House Thanksgiving turkey, numerous farmers had been angling to provide the President's Thanksgiving meal, and despite Coolidge's requests to stop the practice in 1923, the unsolicited gifts continued and became increasingly unusual, with the live raccoon being the furthest out of the ordinary fare. Coolidge, who had never eaten raccoon and had no appetite to try it, kept Rebecca as a pet instead.

Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. A Republican lawyer from New England, born in Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of Massachusetts.