CHAPPAQUA, N.Y.

FORMER US President Clinton, who said the death of his dog Buddy was the worst thing to happen to him after leaving the White House, is getting a new puppy that will have a lot of Buddy in him.

The new dog - another chocolate Labrador Retriever - was sired by Buddy’s nephew.

Clinton and his family are “very excited about the new puppy,” which will be brought to Chappaqua in a month or so, his spokeswoman Julia Payne said last week.

She would not divulge the dog’s name. The breeder, Linda Renfro of Wild Goose Kennel in Federalsburg, Maryland., said the puppy had been temporarily called B.B., for Bill’s Boy, until Clinton bestowed the new name a couple of weeks ago.

The dog “does seem very much like Buddy to me,” Renfro said, “except that I think he’s probably a bigger eater. From what I have seen of him, his sole ambition 24 hours a day is to eat.”

Renfro said Clinton had yet to see the dog, which is three months old. The puppy is now in the hands of a trainer. Buddy was struck and killed by a car on a busy two-lane road at the bottom of the Clintons’ cul-de-sac in January of this year. He was pronounced dead on arrival at an animal hospital. He was 4 years old. Clinton told a Newsweek interviewer last month that the dog’s death was “by far the worst thing” to happen to him after leaving office.