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Subject: Meow! Socks In the First Pet's Shoes<By Laura Blumenfeld<Washington Post Staff
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 92 05:41:19 EST
Message-ID: <8.1992Nov9.054120@AmeriCast.com>

Meow! Socks In the First Pet's Shoes<By Laura
Blumenfeld<Washington Post Staff Writer=

 Cat in the White House, rats beware.

 Socks, the First Cat-elect, soon will be slinking through the
Blue Room, pawing over documents on the president's desk, pounc-
ing out to greet the commander in chief when he steps off Air
Force One. Fabulous, purr cat people. But traditionalists wonder:
How presidential is a man with a pussycat on his lap?

"A dog is an obvious for the president," says Mike Deaver,
Reagan's chief image maker. "They're the most American pet there
is."

 Cats are for wusses, dog men say. They are preening, finicky,
spooky-eyed stalkers that historically have been worshiped as
gods, or hanged as witches. Not much PR value to black magic in
the White House.

 Dogs invoke manly images of thick-shouldered hunters thundering
through the woods. They are a photo-op prop, a way to divert re-
porters, someone you can count on to lick your hand when everyone
else has bitten.  The Clintons had a dog but a car ran him over a
few years ago, says a spokesman. Bill wanted a new dog. Hillary
and Chelsea vetoed the proposal, and so they got Socks - black
body, white feet - now 2 1/2 years old. Chelsea, 12, carries him
around a lot. He doesn't do any tricks, except make Bill and Hil-
lary sneeze.

 And he won't be writing any books, says Frank Greer, Clinton's
media consultant. The Bushes' pet springer spaniel earned nearly
$890,000 in royalties from "Millie's Book."

 "Socks has been through a lot this past year" with so many
strangers tracking through his house, Greer says.  "He gauges
everyone when they walk in, rubs their leg if he likes them. He's
pretty laid back, though, definitely not neurotic."

 Even so, Clinton should get a dog, a mutt, to help his populist
image, suggests Nial Kelly, author of "Presidential Pets." Kelly
says only two presidents have had cats since 1932, Carter and
Ford, "and that's not an encouraging sign."

 Cat fanatics hiss at the suggestion.

 "A cat is more thoughtful, a lot hipper, a lot cooler," says
Peter Gethers, author of "The Cat Who Went to Paris," one of a
litter of cute cat books. "And that's Clinton, it fits his image
- wearing dark glasses, playing the sax with a cool cat nearby."

 Dogs are dopey and slavish, Gethers says: "A dog would be the
one who sends all those personalized thank you notes."

 Socks shows that the Clintons are typical of today's young fami-
lies, says Bob Fleming, national president of the Cat Fanciers
Federation.  Cats have edged out dogs as America's top pet, ac-
cording to a survey by the American Veterinary Medical Associa-
tion. In 1991, the national feline population was 57 million,
compared with 52.5 million canines.

 With today's busy lifestyle - more working mothers and single-
parent households, people socializing straight from the office -
who has time to walk the dog? Throw some Friskies in a bowl and a
cat's set for days.

 But before Clinton lugs the cat box up from Arkansas, he should
consider Socks's political baggage.  "If a cat's natural essence
could be reduced to a political orientation, it would definitely
be some sort of atavistic anarchism," writes Jeff Reid, author of
"Cat Dependent No More! Learning to Live Cat-Free in a Cat-Filled
World." "Dogs, in the same kind of metaphorical mapping, would be
obedient little fascists yapping approval of whatever der Fuhrer
dictated."

Clinton also ought to consider the pet-owner's persona.

Cat people feel more comfortable with "independence, stealthi-
ness, sneakiness, spontaneity, the unknown, noncompliance," says
Herbert Nieberg, a New York psychotherapist who specializes in
what he calls human and companion animal problems (that's pet
shrink to you).

 Dog owners, opines Nieberg, are into "authoritarianism, depen-
dency, intelligence and one-on-one companionship."

 White House pets weren't always a two-party ticket. Taft kept a
Holstein cow. Andrew Johnson cared for a family of mice. Wilson
kept sheep on the south lawn. Theodore Roosevelt adopted ferrets
and a kangaroo.

 Mostly, though, there have been presidential pooches, who've
brought both political gain and shame on their masters. Voters
never forgave Lyndon Johnson for picking up his beagles by the
ears, provoking mind-cracking yowls all around.

 But Franklin Roosevelt's Scottie, Fala, buried near the foot of
his grave, helped clinch the 1944 reelection. The incumbent said
he could deal with smear campaigns aimed at him or his family but
would not tolerate attacks on his dog. Pet lovers lapped it up.

 Sometimes the dog thing has come in handy. Ford's golden retri-
ever, Liberty, would jump up on cue and wag his tail at guests
who'd overstayed their welcome. Ford would pause and chuckle
"heh-heh-heh," or something, and then indicate it was time for
his next appointment.

 On other occasions, dogged behavior went too far. When Barbara
Bush gave Sam Donaldson a White House tour, Millie licked herself
- there - on camera. Charlie, the Kennedys' Welsh terrier,
thought Jackie Kennedy's ankle was a fire hydrant. Nixon's Irish
setter, King Timahoe, chomped up a corner of the Oval Office rug.
And Jimmy Carter's dog, Grits, absconded from Washington amid ru-
mors he was never "White House-broken."

Now Socks will join other feline notables such as Amy Carter's
Siamese, Misty Malarky Ying Yang. Or Coolidge's Tiger, a striped
alley cat, who once ran away. Coolidge got on the radio and asked
for help to find Tiger.

 Speculation's rife about Socks's impact on the White House.
Will the gold leaf Steinway become a scratching post? Will secret
service men make emergency runs for fur-ball medicine? Will state
dinners include Charlie the Tuna?

 Cat pundits predict:

 "With no barking, no sudden interruptions, fewer demands on the
president's time, a cat should create a more reflective atmo-
sphere in the Oval Office so that the presidential art of com-
plete thoughts and whole sentences will be restored," says Micha-
el J.  Rosen, author of "The Company of Cats."

 "If Socks has perfected the feline blank stare, we'll have cer-
tain diplomatic advantages," says Suzie Becker, who wrote "Every-
thing I Know, I Learned From My Cat."

  Socks will spend most of his day watching CNN, predicts author
Gethers. None of this indiscriminate, slobbery dog friendliness,
he says. Socks will watch visitors from afar and make "considered
judgments."

 "My guess is Millie would have bounded over to lick the hand of
Saddam Hussein," says Gethers. "Socks would have seen him for
what he was."

 04:34 11-098C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
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