PRESIDENTIAL CAT TALES

Our report on the new decor of the White House closed with the comment that in the President's private family quarters a ''less inviting, don't-touch tidiness'' might soon be ''remedied by time, wear and Socks'' ((THE WHITE HOUSE, Dec. 6)). This prompted Nancy J.D. Harding of McLean, Virginia, to write us about a truly malicious presidential feline: ''One cat before Socks has already distinguished himself in the wreckage department -- Calvin Coolidge's.'' The pet, appropriately named Tiger, wore out his welcome very quickly. ''Evidently Tiger was a real 'Conan the Destroyer' beastie,'' reports Harding. ''His destructive ways cost the Coolidges a valuable antique bedspread and Tiger his stately home. My grandmother took him in -- briefly.'' Although the White House has always been home to presidential pets -- mostly dogs, birds, an alligator and more than a dozen cats -- no damaging tales are known about the others, including Siam, who was given to Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes in 1878 and was among the first White House cats, or Amy Carter's Misty Malarky Ying Yang. Better watch out, Socks! You wouldn't want to follow Tiger out the door.