Socks the Cat Near Death

Kitty has cancer

As the vice president-elect adopts a new puppy and the president-elect mulls his family's first pooch, there's word that a former presidential pet has reached his last life.

Socks, the Clintons' White House cat, has cancer and isn't expected to live much longer, according to US News and World Report.

Socks has been living out his days in Hollywood, Md., with former personal secretary to Bill Clinton, Betty Currie, according to the report. The feline found his new home there after the Clintons left office -- Hillary went to work in the Senate and Bill moved to New York to run his foundation.

The Clintons adopted Socks in 1991 when they still lived in Arkansas.

But there was a long, drawn-out standoff in the White House once Socks' arch-nemesis, Buddy the Labrador, arrived.  To say the two didn't get along was an understatement.

"You know, I did better with the Arabs, the Palestinians and the Israelis than I've done with Socks and Buddy," the former president said at the time.

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