Dear Socks, Dear Buddy

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Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets is a 1998 children's book written by First Lady of the United States Hillary Rodham Clinton. It concerns the two pets that lived in the White House during the Clinton administration: Socks the cat and Buddy the dog. It includes more than 50 letters written to the First Pets by children and more than 80 photographs of Socks and Buddy. Examples of questions posed include "Who do you like best? Mr. Clinton? Mrs. Clinton or Chelsea?" and "How do you like being a dog, Buddy? I like being a person." Socks was asked if he was allowed to watch MTV and they were also asked if they ever got petted by the Spice Girls.
It also includes several sections of text by Clinton that discussed the two pets' habits and rivalry and gave a history of previous pets in the White House. The text also dispensed some advice on caring for pets and told parents to encourage children to express themselves through writing.
The idea for the book originated with her publisher, Simon & Schuster, who were interested in a follow-up to Clinton's best-selling 1996 volume It Takes a Village.