Socks the Cat Dies

The Clinton cat Socks has died.

Former First Cat Socks, one of the world’s most famous felines, died Friday at the age of 20 after battling throat cancer since November. A stray cat rescued by the Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, Socks lived in the governor’s mansion in Arkansas and later moved with the family to the White House.

"Socks brought much happiness to Chelsea and us over the years, and enjoyment to kids and cat lovers everywhere," the Clintons said in a statement, released first to PEOPLE.COM. "We're grateful for those memories, and we especially want to thank our good friend, Betty Currie, for taking such loving care of Socks for so many years."

Currie, the president's personal secretary, and her husband, Bob, took over care of Socks after the Clintons left the White House. It was near their home in Maryland that Socks was put to sleep Friday morning. "He could no longer stand and wasn’t eating," according to family friend and presidential historian Barry Landau.

Obituary for Shinda the Silverback

This from the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund website.

Shinda had been observed to be unwell for about two weeks when, on Nov. 22, our trackers could not find him within his group, probably because he was too weak to catch up with them. The field team began patrolling the area around the group and finally found him on the morning of Nov. 24, but he had already died.

Since 2007, Shinda had been observed on other occasions to be very weak and remained behind the group. However, in all those episodes he was always able to recover, as well as to maintain his dominance. We were all hoping that he could do it this time too.

Shinda was 31 years old and still the dominant silverback of his group. He had led the group since it was formed in 1993 (after the split of an older group, called Group 5). He was observed at birth by Dr. Dian Fossey in 1977 and later grew to become a large, handsome adult with strong leadership skills. In 1993, when staff returned to Karisoke following an evacuation due to the civil war, they found that Shinda’s brother Ziz, who had led Group 5 since the death of Beethoven, was dead. Some of the females had followed Shinda, while the others remained with Cantsbee and Pablo in what came to be known as Pablo’s Group. Shinda maintained dominance of his group until his death and presided over its growth. He had his tender side as well, and was often observed spending hours grooming his favorite female, the elderly, one-eyed Pandora.