Sad news: Socks the Cat is sick with cancer and isn’t expected to live.
Socks roamed the White House as Chelsea Clinton‘s pet from 1993-2001. (The Clintons adopted him way back in 1991, when Bill Clinton was still governor of Arkansas.) When Socks left office in 2001, he went to live with Clinton secretary Betty Currie and her husband in Maryland.
Currie said this summer that Socks had become the Abe Vigoda of presidential pets. When people meet the cat, “‘I didn’t know Socks was still alive’ is the first thing they say.”
It’s a bummer. But Socks has long since outlived his White House rival, Buddy the Labrador retriever, who was hit by a car in 2002.