Socks, President Bill Clinton’s White House Cat
By admin | June 22, 2007
Socks (born c. 1991) was the pet cat of Bill Clinton and the Clinton family. After the Clintons left the White House, Socks was given to Clinton’s secretary, Betty Currie.
Socks joined the Clinton family after jumping into the the arms of Chelsea Clinton while she was leaving the house of her piano teacher in Little Rock Arkansas. After winning the 1992 Presidential election Socks moved from the governor’s mansion to the White house.
While in the White House Socks was the coveted principal presidential pet until 1997 when he was “voted out of office” due to the arrival of a dog named Buddy. Socks and Buddy never got along. According to Hillary Rodham Clinton, Socks “despised Buddy from first sight, instantly and forever” and Bill Clinton said that “I did better with the Palestinians and the Israelis… than I’ve done with Socks and Buddy.”
Socks clearly was not interested in having his home taken over by a boisterous dog. Even with clipped claws, Socks never missed an opportunity to take a swipe at Buddy.
When the Clintons left office in 2001 they had a problem. Relations between Buddy and Socks had never improved. They took Buddy with them but passed Socks on to Bill Clinton’s secretary, Betty Currie. In mid-2006 socks was still living with Betty Currie and her husband in Hollywood, Maryland.
As for Buddy? He was struck and killed by a vehicle while the Clintons were on vacation in Mexico. He was apparently chasing after a contractor’s van that was leaving the Clinton’s Chappaqua estate when he ran into a busy street and was killed. The same fate took their earlier dog Zeke. As far as we know, Socks did not attend the funeral and did not send a representative.
- Trivia
- In one of the Congressional investigations on the Clinton administration, the use of White House staff, postage, and stationery to answer mail addressed to the cat was probed by Rep. Dan Burton.
- Socks himself was featured on a great sheetlet of 9 stamps issued by the Central African Republic in 1996.
Topics: American Short Hair, Politics, President |
October 6th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
[…] of a cat on this post as supposed to the usual socks picture, let this girl introduce you to Socks, the Clinton’s cat. So it counts, particularlyin light of the “political” nature […]
May 13th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
XD i read about that in hillary clinton’s book! i love the line: Socks “despised Buddy from first sight, instantly and forever”
pretty cool cat!