Socks, Buddy and the History of Presidential Pets

Pets have a long and varied history at the White House. Initially, animals were working animals, with cats in particular serving the role of rodent catcher. Overtime, however, family pets replaced working animals, a trend that soon extended into households across the nation. Abraham Lincoln is believed to have been the first President to own cats as pets. Secretary of State William Seward gifted the Lincolns two cats named Tabby and Dixie, who soon became beloved members of the family. So beloved were these pets, that when a journalist asked First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln what the President’s favorite hobbies were, she flatly replied, “Cats.”

President Theodore Roosevelt was known to have had a menagerie of pets during his administration. This collection included a bear named Jonathan Edwards; a lizard named Bill; guinea pigs named Admiral Dewey, Dr. Johnson, Bishop Doane, Fighting Bob Evans, and Father O'Grady; Maude the pig; Josiah the badger; Eli Yale the blue macaw; Baron Spreckle the hen; a one-legged rooster; a hyena named Bill and a lion cub named Joe, both gifts from King Menelik of Abyssinia; a barn owl; Peter the rabbit; and Algonquin the pony.

Calvin Coolidge also kept an assortment of animals, such as a pygmy hippo, a bobcat, lion cubs, and a wallaby. His favorite pet was a racoon named Rebecca; President Coolidge would visit her every day and walk her around the White House on a leash. When the White House was being repaired and the President and his family moved temporarily, he worried that Rebecca might get lonely, so a limousine was sent to bring her from the White House to stay with them.

Presidential pets became minor celebrities and goodwill ambassadors of sorts, and helped to promote causes and smooth diplomatic relations. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s dog Fala donated toys to promote scrap rubber collection for the war effort in 1942, and President and First Lady Ford donated their dog Liberty’s puppies to a guide dog program for the blind. In a true display of Cold War-era diplomacy, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev gifted a dog, Pushinka, to President John F. Kennedy. Pushinka was the offspring of Strelka, who had boarded the Soviet artificial satellite Korabl-Sputnik 2.

Although he was not the first cat to stroll the White House corridors, Socks created a distinct and indelible mark on the hearts of the American people like no presidential pet had done before. He first became a member of the Clinton family after Chelsea’s piano teacher discovered two kittens under her porch. The Clintons adopted the tuxedo cat, and later named him Socks due to his white paws. Socks' brother was later taken in by a local Arkansas family.

Dubbed the “First Cat-elect” after the 1992 presidential election, life at the White House for Socks was one of relative comfort. He loved prowling the White House lawns, something that the press used to their advantage. They would often coax Socks for a picture by plying him with catnip, with one cameraman going so far as to grab the cat to pose for a picture. This prompted the Clintons to issue a swift directive, instructing, “Special note to all press from the highest authority: don’t touch the cat again.”

Whether he was lounging under a pin oak tree or snuggling up on his favorite chair in the receiving room outside of the Oval Office, Socks was beloved by nearly all who encountered him.

As his popularity continued to grow, the American public began to send hundreds of letters, cards, and photographs a month inquiring about their “First Cat.” In order to read and respond to all of Socks’s mail, the President and First Lady turned to volunteers from the U.S. Soldiers and Airmen’s Home, which housed 1800 retired veterans, and served as the White House Auxiliary Mail Room. Volunteers would answer the mail by sending a postcard or lithograph featuring Socks and signed with his paw print. Correspondents were so thrilled to receive a reply that they would share their stories with the media and articles would be published about their experience.

Socks permeated the pop culture sphere in a way no presidential pet had before. President Clinton once remarked, “When I took office, only high energy physicists had ever heard of what is called the World Wide Web […] Now even my cat has its own page.” The White House webpage even included an audio file of Socks the cat meowing.

Songs and comic strips were made featuring Socks; inauguration merch emblazoned with the “First Cat-elect” playing a saxophone was gifted to President Bill Clinton.

Socks even made a surprise cameo in the 1990’s American sitcom Murphy Brown. Starring Candice Bergen as the titular character, the show covers the life of sharp-tongued investigative journalist and news anchor Murphy Brown. In the season six episode “Sox and the Single Woman,” Brown receives an invitation to the White House; while there, Socks ends up in the reporter’s car and is inadvertently kidnapped. Hijinks ensue as the cast attempts to return Socks to the White House. Socks would later make an appearance on an April Fool’s episode of Larry King Live in 1994, albeit in Muppet form, giving Kermit the Frog an exclusive tour of the White House.

Boss battles included Presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter fending off Socks with bomb raids and “smile attacks.” In 2012, self-described Socks enthusiast Tom Curtain procured a copy of the game. He teamed up with developer Second Dimension and created a Kickstarter campaign to bring the game to Super Nintendo consoles. Although Curtain was unable to fulfill his goal of bringing the game to consumers, devoted fans can still find video playthroughs of the game online.

In December 1997, President Clinton wanted a companion to help him adjust to his daughter, Chelsea, going away to college. President Clinton adopted a 3-month-old chocolate Labrador puppy, which he named in honor of his great-uncle Henry “Buddy” Grisham. President Clinton’s uncle trained dogs for 50 years, and, as a child, the President talked with him often about raising dogs. It was these fond memories that inspired him to name his new puppy, Buddy.

President Clinton and Buddy the dog quickly hit it off, and Buddy began following the President on walks across the White House Lawn, to press conferences, and even to some White House events. Buddy’s favored locales to hang-out were the East Room and the Oval Office where he would watch and sometimes distract President Clinton while he was working. He also loved to play catch with President Clinton.

Not everything went smoothly upon Buddy’s arrival in the White House. From their first official meeting, both Socks and Buddy were immediately suspicious of each other. Relations between the two pets would become so heated that President Clinton and White House staffers would have to intervene. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote in Dear Socks, Dear Buddy, “Concerned allies set up several summits in an effort to broker a truce between the pets. It wasn’t until the day that Socks swatted Buddy on the nose and sent the puppy off yelping, though, that they began to get along fine. Buddy now seems to understand that Socks is a pretty tough character, complete with claws, even if he does weigh only nine pounds.”

Sadly, the truce the First Lady writes about was short lived, and the First Family decided after their time in the White House was finished to separate the two. Buddy would live with President Clinton and the First Lady at their house in Chappaqua, New York while Socks went to live with his favorite White House staffer, President Clinton’s former secretary Bettie Currie.

Although Buddy never reached the same popularity as his cat sibling, Socks, he still had plenty of admirers. There were numerous web pages dedicated to him as well as an official fan club. Like Socks the Cat, Buddy received thousands of letters a year from his loyal fans, and the White House would have volunteers respond with postcards and lithographic prints featuring Buddy’s image and paw print.