CHAPPAQUA, N.Y., Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Buddy, the dog of former President Bill Clinton and one of the most photographed animals in the world, died after being hit by a car in Chappaqua, N.Y., according to joint statement released by the by the Clintons Thursday.
"Buddy was a loyal companion and brought us much joy," the Clintons said in a joint statement. "He will truly be missed."
Neither the former president not Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton were at home Wednesday when the dog ran after a contractor's van that had left the Clintons' Westchester home, according to Bill Clinton's spokeswoman Julia Payne.
The 4-year-old chocolate Labrador was hit on Route 117, a busy road near the Clinton home, in what police describe as an accident.
The energetic and playful dog was given to Clinton as a puppy in 1997. From the start the dog had a high profile. Bill Clinton announced that he would named the dog after his great-uncle Henry Oren "Buddy" Grisham who had died that year in a news conference. Clinton's spokesman announced the neutering of Buddy in 1998 at White House news conference.
The dog was often photographed pulling at the end of his leach as Bill Clinton walked to and from his helicopter on the White House lawn.
The Clintons already had "Socks," a cat living in the White House at the time but the first family had been confident the two animals would learn to get along.
They never did. White House photographers caught the moment, on Jan. 6, 1998, when man's best friend met with man's feline friend on the White House lawn. Clinton held Buddy on a leach but the first cat arched its back and hissed reminiscent of pictures of Halloween cats.
Despite encouragement by the first family the two pets never got along even after collaborating on a book edited by Sen. Clinton, entitled "Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets."
The White House is a big place and the two animals were given separate quarters so the two could avoid crossing paths. However, when the Clintons left the White House in 2001 they decided that the two feuding animals could not live under the same roof so Buddy was chosen to live the Clintons' new home in New York and Socks went to live with the former president's secretary, Betty Curry, who lives in Washington.
Buddy's Chappaqua neighbors said they often saw Buddy and all liked the good-natured dog. He seemed to make friends with everyone except Socks.
