travelingdogs.com
Clintons Lose Their Best Buddy In Accident
By Bobby Cuza
STAFF WRITER
January 4, 2002
Chappaqua - Christine Meyer, proprietor of Wags & Whiskers, the local pet grooming store, got the phone call at 7:30 a.m. yesterday.
Buddy, former first dog and a yearlong resident of Chappaqua, had gone to that great kennel in the sky.
The 4-year-old chocolate labrador was hit by a car Wednesday afternoon on Route 117, a busy two-lane road. He apparently bounded down the sloping cul-de-sac that has been home to the Clintons since last January in playful pursuit of a contractor who had just left the residence. He was pronounced dead Wednesday night at Chappaqua Animal Hospital.
"It was a little bit of a shock," said Meyer, who gave Buddy a shampoo about once a month. She got the bad news from an employee as word spread rapidly in Chappaqua.
She remembered the dog as easygoing, unimpressed by frills.
"The only toy he ever wanted to play with was a ball," she said. "A nice old-fashioned tennis ball. Nothing fancy. That was his thing."
Former President Bill Clinton was often spotted with Buddy around town, as was one of Clinton's personal assistants, Oscar.
Neither Clinton nor his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, was home at the time of the accident.
Chappaqua police did not reveal the name of the driver who struck Buddy.
The Clintons issued a statement yesterday saying Buddy "was a loyal companion and brought us much joy." The dog was given to the Clintons in late 1997 as a gift and named after the president's great-uncle, Henry Oren "Buddy" Grisham.
Buddy had a famously acrimonious relationship with Socks, the first cat. When the Clintons left the White House, Socks went to live a peaceful, non-Buddied life with Clinton secretary Betty Currie, while Buddy moved to Chappaqua.
Neighbors, though, had only fond memories of the lab. At least one well-wisher pulled up to the Clinton driveway yesterday, condolence letter in hand, only to be rebuffed by a Secret Service agent.
Sheila MacWilliams, whose backyard abuts that of the Clintons, recalled how on Christmas Day, Buddy had been playing outside with her beagle, Chase.
"Everybody's sad," she said. "But it's funny. A lot of people have been calling me ... 'Shouldn't they have somebody watching the dog?' I said, well, yeah. But we had an invisible [electric] fence and our dog shot through it and a truck hit it."
Even Ron, the local mailman, said he had no beef with Buddy. Admittedly, their interactions were few - "I saw the dog once," Ron said - because the Clintons' mail is sorted and delivered separately.
"Buddy got along with everybody. Everybody liked Buddy; Buddy liked everybody," said Meyer, the pet store owner. "He definitely earned his nickname."
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