Sunny, the Obama family's second White House dog, dies at 13

The Portuguese water dog joined Bo as the Obamas' companion during the president's second term, and outlived him by five years

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.

That description held up for most of her stay. Michelle Obama later wrote in her memoir that Sunny showed little interest in being house-trained given the size of her new home, and Obama was still complaining in 2016 that she treated the hallway near his office as fair game for a bathroom break. At a 2013 holiday event, an exuberant Sunny knocked a toddler to the ground before licking her face in apology. In January 2017, days before the family left the White House, she reportedly bit an 18-year-old guest badly enough to require stitches.

Obama called her "a force of nature" in his tribute, recalling how she leapt over hedges chasing squirrels and birds across the South Lawn. Where Bo could be coaxed with treats, Sunny wanted company and play, and she followed staff around the grounds closely enough that aides joked she was helping them on the job.

She had her habits. Sunny disliked water despite her breed's name, drank loudly, and generally preferred people to other dogs, with Bo the one exception. She flew with the family to Hawaii and Martha's Vineyard each year and became a fixture at official events, popular enough that Michelle Obama once said she received a monthly memo listing requests for the dogs' appearances that she had to sign off on.

Sunny and Bo moved with the family to their post-presidency home in Washington, where they helped the Obamas adjust after both daughters, Malia and Sasha, left for college. Bo died in 2021 at 12, following a battle with cancer. Obama wrote that Sunny had been protective of her older companion, sensing he wasn't always as alert as she was.

In Wednesday's post, the Obamas said they would miss Sunny terribly and pictured her reunited with Bo, watching out for him again. The family did not disclose a cause of death. Sunny joins a line of first pets that shaped life at the White House, including George W. Bush's Barney and Bill Clinton's Buddy, at a moment when the current occupant, Donald Trump, keeps no pets of his own.