Sometimes the Associated Press can break the big story and offer some of the most gripping photos in the world.

Sometimes, well, they offer something a bit softer.

That brings us to the news service's newest book: "FIRST PET," described in a release as: “a 128-page collection of revealing photographs documenting U.S. presidents and their pets through the decades.”

Out today, the book offers images of “Franklin D. Roosevelt and his beloved Scottie, Fala; George H.W. Bush with his Springer spaniel Millie (who wrote a best-seller with the help of first lady Barbara Bush); Bill Clinton and his cat, Socks, and chocolate Labrador, Buddy; and Bo, the Portugese water dog the Obama family brought home to the White House last year.”

There are also the more unusual pets, including President William Howard Taft's pet cow Pauline Wayne, the Coolidges' raccoons, and a young Caroline Kennedy's pony, Macaroni.