Socks (cat)

Socks (c. 1989 – February 20, 2009) was the pet cat of the Clinton family, the first family of the United States from 1993 to 2001. An adopted stray, he was the pet of the Clintons during the administration, and after President Bill Clinton left office, was given to his then-secretary Betty Currie. Socks was first adopted by the Clinton family in 1991 after he jumped into the arms of Chelsea Clinton. Following Bill Clinton's win at the 1992 United States presidential election, Socks became a media sensation, in which he was a favorite to both staff and visitors of the White House, and was often taken to schools and hospitals. He himself appeared on an episode of the sitcom Murphy Brown in 1993, where he gets inadvertently kidnapped from the White House during a press dinner. Socks' likeness continued making appearance, in which he was portrayed on an illustrated book, the then-cancelled Kaneko video game Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill (1993), and as a Muppet in Larry King Live. Socks was the mascot for the White House website's kids' page and featured in Hillary Clinton's children's book Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets (1998), of which the latter's proceeds were given to the National Park Foundation. After the Clintons left the White House in 2001, Socks was adopted by Currie, which was primarily due to tensions between him and chocolate Labrador Retriever dog Buddy that began in 1997, which Socks never tolerated. By the administration's conclusion, he received hundreds of letters each month. While living with Currie, he continued making appearances to animal-based charities and other events until his death from euthanasia due to jaw cancer in 2009. Socks was 19 or 20 years old at the time of his death.