Socks Clinton

Socks Clinton, Leader of the Feline Free World from 1992-2000 (b. 1989 - 2009) was euthanized after months of battling cancer. Socks was a stray adopted by Chelsea Clinton when her father, President Bill Clinton was serving as Governor of Arkansas, and later came to the White House in 1992 as the First Cat. Since leaving the White House, Socks has lived with Betty Currie, the former president's secretary, and has enjoyed a luxurious retirement. May Socks accomplish his True Will.

Word tonight that Socks Clinton, the one-time Arkansas stray adopted by the Clintons who rose to international prominence and literary fame as sole feline inhabitant of the White House, died today. Throat cancer and a euthanasia shot were given as the cause. The cat who lived a Horatio Alger life was believed to be about 20. Upon leaving the executive residence in Washington, the Clinton family gave the cat to the president's secretary, Betty Currie, who had recently lost her own pet.

Socks relinquished the public spotlight in 2001 due to term limits and spent his retirement living in Maryland where he expected regular home cooking and was particularly fond of chicken. Socks had become attached to Currie during his White House terms, residing most hours on a blue striped chair next to her desk outside the Oval Office, which he allowed the president to use. Though reticent in public, Socks was known as an affectionate creature, even tolerating the First Dog, a brown Labrador named Buddy, who was killed in a 2002 collision with a car near the Clintons' suburban New York home.