Sunny, the Portuguese water dog who spent four rowdy years roaming the White House residence during Barack Obama’s second term, has died at 13. The former president announced her death on Wednesday, September 16, in a joint Instagram post with Michelle Obama that included photographs spanning her life, from her earliest days in Washington to a 2015 meeting with Pope Francis in the Blue Room.
Sunny arrived at the White House in August 2013, purchased from a Michigan breeder to keep the family’s older dog, Bo, company. Bo, also a Portuguese water dog, had come to the Obamas as a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy in 2009 and had reportedly grown a little listless on his own. Obama told CNN at the time that the new arrival was faster and friskier than her housemate, and that housebreaking her in a rented residence was still a work in progress.
