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Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

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… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

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T R E 4 5 O N

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Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

You are here: Home / Absent Friends / You Were A Good Boy, Champ (Biden’s Dog)

You Were A Good Boy, Champ (Biden’s Dog)

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You Were A Good Boy, Champ

Such sad news about Champ today from Joe Biden:

Our hearts are heavy today as we let you all know that our beloved German Shepherd, Champ, passed away peacefully at home. He was our constant, cherished companion during the last 13 years and was adored by the entire Biden family. Even as Champ’s strength waned in his last months, when we came into a room, he would immediately pull himself up, his tail always wagging, and nuzzle us for an ear scratch or a belly rub. Wherever we were, he wanted to be, and everything was instantly better when he was next to us. He loved nothing more than curling up at our feet in front of a fire at the end of the day, joining us as a comforting presence in meetings, or sunning himself in the White House garden. In his younger days, he was happiest chasing golf balls on the front lawn of the Naval Observatory or racing to catch our grandchildren as they ran around our backyard in Delaware. In our most joyful moments and in our most grief-stricken days, he was there with us, sensitive to our every unspoken feeling and emotion. We love our sweet, good boy and will miss him always.

Tears for Champ.  Love for the Bidens.

h/t Subaru Diane who shared the sad news.

Reader Interactions

93Comments

  2. 2.

    J R in WV

    From deep into the Saturday Morning Open Thread:

    A shame to lose an old companion, Champ, although 13 is quite aged for a German Shepherd. We took in a cousin’s German Shepherd, Captain, who was a very good girl. She was first taken in by my Grandma after cousin’s divorce and he moved to attend law school.

    But as she aged and needed more assistance than Grandma could provide, we brought her to the farm, where she was happy until she reached the point where we had to take her on that final trip to the vet.

    She was 13. A very affectionate family member! Our first dog, actually, got along with all the cats just fine.

  4. 4.

    Joe Falco

    Such small yet mighty acts of humanity as mourning the passing of our loved pets, as dear as any family member, distinguish this White House family from the previous one. Goodbye Champ. You were a good dog.

  5. 5.

    DRickard

    Which Requblican lunatic will start the inevitable “Biden murdered Champ!” story? My money’s on Ben Shapiro.

  6. 6.

    frosty

    Sad news. 13 is a good run for a German Shepherd. We lost both ours at 12. They didn’t chase golf balls but they loved lacrosse balls. One of them would dig lost ones out of the bushes around Hopkins when we took her there for a walk.

  10. 10.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Probably the reason that the coming of the First Cat has been delayed is that the Bidens didn’t feel Champ could handle that much new in his life.

  14. 14.

    laura

    It was so easy to overlook the absolute lack of normal human emotion in tfg during the entirety of his regretable administration. It makes the empathy, kindness, dignity and grace of President Biden stand in stark relief. I hope that the Bidens mourn the loss of their great boon companion and find comfort in remembering him and his place in their family.

  15. 15.

    CaseyL

    He had a very good run, with very good human people as his family. My sympathy to the Bidens; and to Major, who will wonder where his mentor and pal went.

  17. 17.

    WaterGirl

    Dammit, no more losses, please.  So grateful that this didn’t happen when the dogs were in Delaware being cared for by a family friend.  Or when Joe was overseas.

    Major will need a new dog buddy at some point.  i bet even Major feels lost today.

  19. 19.

    Anotherlurker

    I know well the emotions being experienced by the Bidens and anyone who knew Champ.  There is a big hole in their lives right now.

    I try to follow my own advice in circumstances like this:  Cry because they are gone. Smile because they were a big part of your life.

    After a while the smiles of remembrance will outnumber the tears of loss.

    I thank Dr. Seuss for this approach to loss.  “Don’t cry because it is over. Smile because it happened.”

  20. 20.

    germy

    @WaterGirl:  So grateful that this didn’t happen when the dogs were in Delaware being cared for by a family friend. Or when Joe was overseas.

    Champ waited for Joe and Jill to come back home.

  22. 22.

    Brachiator

    Sad news. The sweet remembrance underscores what a human, and humane, president we have.

  23. 23.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @DRickard: “as biden’s polling finally flags as outofcontrol stagflation cannot be ignored any longer, many are suggesting joebiden murdered his dog to draw sympathy to his regime…”

  25. 25.

    Super Dave

    The thing I like most about Joe Biden is he knows who he is, and he likes who he is. I think that says a lot for anyone, but especially for someone who has lived the life he has lived.

  28. 28.

    Kristine

    I saw the headline and my heart sank as I waited for the page to load (ad blocker + Safari being Safari)..

    Champ, you were a very good boy.

  45. 45.

    Elizabelle

    Haven’t read the thread, but title needs to be Champ Biden.  My heart stopped, thinking something happened to Tom Levenson’s very young cat. .

    Rest well, Champ.  It’s wonderful he made it back to the White House; you could see he has been on his last legs for months

    ETA:  Old dogs are the best.  They are soulful.

  48. 48.

    WaterGirl

    @Elizabelle: Fixed!

    I didn’t even think of that because I think of Tom’s kitty as “Baby Champ” even though he isn’t a baby anymore!

    Probably because of the Baby Champ vaccination sticker.  Baby Champ is locked in time, forever a baby.  (except in reality)

  50. 50.

    Miss Bianca

    @WaterGirl:

    Was Champ actually a rescue dog, though? Major was, but I don’t know about Champ, and frankly I don’t care one way or the other.

    Gotta say that the “adopt don’t shop” hashtag kinda bugs me – it’s too simplistic as a slogan, and it completely sidesteps the issue of the fact that if people who really believe this had their way, all dog breeding would become a matter of chance and circumstance and be dominated by irresponsible breeders. Maybe that’s what they want, I don’t know. But saying that all breeding and breeders are bad just sticks in my craw.

    ETA: It also sidesteps the issue that not all shelter dogs are suitable for all families and situations, and that people shouldn’t have to feel bad about the fact that sometimes they just want what they want, damn it – if I want a Portugese Water Dog because they’re hypoallergenic and I have a kid with allergies, I don’t want some adoption Holy Joe telling me that I shouldn’t be able to have it unless one just randomly turns up in a shelter somewhere.

  51. 51.

    JoyceH

    @Miss Bianca: ​
     

    Gotta say that the “adopt don’t shop” hashtag kinda bugs me – it’s too simplistic as a slogan, and it completely sidesteps the issue of the fact that if people who really believe this had their way, all dog breeding would become a matter of chance and circumstance and be dominated by irresponsible breeders. Maybe that’s what they want, I don’t know. But saying that all breeding and breeders are bad just sticks in my craw.

    THANK you!

  52. 52.

    trollhattan

    @WaterGirl:

    Those ginormous puppy paws!

    From VP pup to POTUS pup, Champ had quite a life!

    TFG doesn’t “get” the very idea of a pet. How I don’t miss him.

  53. 53.

    WaterGirl

    @Miss Bianca:

    According to Wikipedia: “He purchased the dog as a puppy from a breeder in Pennsylvania.”

    Major is definitely a rescue; Champ was not

    edit: That was the only place I found that photo of Joe holding the pups – if you want to point me to Joe holding the pup without the top tweet, I will gladly replace it.

  54. 54.

    Elizabelle

    Thank you, WaterGirl.  That was a Tunch moment for me.

    We are all better people for knowing of the wonderful Champ.  Love the puppy photos, too.

  55. 55.

    Brachiator

    In his younger days, he was happiest chasing golf balls on the front lawn of the Naval Observatory or racing to catch our grandchildren as they ran around our backyard in Delaware.

    I did not realize that the Bidens got Champ when Joe became vice president. It must have been great for Champ to be able to run around the VPs official residence.

  58. 58.

    Elizabelle

    I played the Bidens’ Christmas message, with the two dogs, over and over again.  Wild young Major, and sedate but watchful Champ.  Who Major just about charged over at one point.  Charming.  Here’s youtube of it.

  59. 59.

    JoyceH

    @Brachiator:

    It must have been great for Champ to be able to run around the VPs official residence.

    So that sent me to Google and apparently the Harris family has no pets?! Kamala! What’s the deal?

  62. 62.

    JoyceH

    Somewhat off topic, but can I just mention how impressive I find it that Biden can easily get down on one knee and then get right back up again? I’m younger than him by about a decade and I can’t remember when I could do that.

  65. 65.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl: Thanks for that.

    There’s a lot going on in that picture.

    What does Champ’s collar say?  “Vice”?  Maybe that’s his collar from the O-B administration days.  Keeping it makes me think that continuity is important to the old fella.

    Some black beads are draped over Biden’s watch.  Discrete Rosary beads?  Something else?

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  66. 66.

    Elizabelle

    That Bidens’ Christmas video worked on so many levels.  It was brilliant.

    And a good way to memorialize Champ, who, it was apparent, was likely celebrating his last Christmas.

    Big dogs can be so sweet.  And they just do not live long enough.  GSDs have such dignity to them.

  67. 67.

    JoyceH

    @Another Scott:

    What does Champ’s collar say? “Vice”? Maybe that’s his collar from the O-B administration days. Keeping it makes me think that continuity is important to the old fella.

    So I had to go look and it appears to me that the ‘vice’ is the end of a word and his fur covers the rest. Service? Champ was not a service dog or he’d wear a harness, so not sure what the rest of the inscription might be. Secret Service? Maybe the presidential dogs have Secret Service issued collars with tracking devices? That would certainly come in handy. POTUS: Where’s Major? Secret Service (checks phone app): He’s in the pantry. POTUS: Get him out of there, he’s after the dog biscuits!

  68. 68.

    trollhattan

    @WaterGirl:

    We had two rescues and now our dog was purchased from an ethical breeder. Kiddo wanted “a puppy of my own” and rescue puppies are a whole other thing from adopting an adult. At least around here–am sure it varies depending on geography. (For whatever reason we’re awash in pitbulls and chihuahuas.)

    Suspect part of the always-adopt mentality is to not support puppy mills and unethical breeders, who are always chasing the next “now” breed (currently the French bulldog).

  69. 69.

    JoyceH

    @trollhattan:

    Suspect part of the always-adopt mentality is to not support puppy mills and unethical breeders, who are always chasing the next “now” breed (currently the French bulldog).

    I’m sure you’re right, but it’s morphed into this really weird thing where getting a dog from anything other than a rescue can bring down on your head a really hateful harangue about the dogs you’ve killed by not adopting them.

  72. 72.

    brantl

    It is so good to have a presidential family and vice presidential family that are real people. Just so good. I love these guys.

  73. 73.

    Mike in NC

    We’re going next door later today for cocktails. Our neighbors lost their beloved dog Maggie a couple of months ago. We’ll toast all of the lovable furry companions we’ve lived with over the years.

  74. 74.

    Auntie Anne

    @Another Scott: Those are Beau’s rosary beads.  He’s worn them since Beau’s death. I don’t believe it is the entire rosary, so  my guess is that it is one of the decades.

  77. 77.

    Nutmeg again

    Oh, my. Lots of tears, even as we all knew it was inevitable. Of course it reflects my beloved Murphy who is fighting the good fight against Degenerative Myelopathy (common in GSDs too), and all the other sweet companions we are so lucky to have.

  78. 78.

    debbie

    @raven:

    Only three??? My roommate’s black lab’s first litter was 10 pups! And in an apartment development that did not permit pets. ?

  79. 79.

    randy khan

    I’m so sorry about this, but I have to say that I imagine he lived his best life given that his humans are mensches, and it was a nice long life by German Shepherd standards.

  80. 80.

    Ruckus

    @Anotherlurker:

    “Don’t cry because it is over. Smile because it happened.”

    Always try to remember the good stuff. Sure you are going to remember the bad, if for no other reason than it was bad. But the good stuff makes life better than just breathing and is there for most people. Sometimes you have to look for it for sure but look we all should.

  82. 82.

    Ruckus

    @JoyceH:

    I’m younger than him by half a decade and while I can still do that, getting down is a bit difficult, getting back up is fucking damn hard. Some of it is that he exercises regularly, and bike ridding is very good for the legs. The rest is all just Joe being Joe

    For those that wonder, with my issues balance is a problem so bike ridding is right out. I also have over half a million miles ridding motorcycles and I’ve had to stop that as well.

  83. 83.

    karen marie

    @SiubhanDuinne:   Every dog should have a cat, and vice versa.  It makes me very sad that my Lucy no longer has her own cat.  She misses her Gracie but this tiny apartment simply doesn’t have space for the necessary cat commode.  Gracie left this mortal coil at the too-young age of 16, in 2019.

  84. 84.

    Ruckus

    @Mike in NC:

    A pet rock wouldn’t adore him, so that’s out.

    A live pet would have peed in his shoes, just because he’s an asshole. Other than a cat, who would have crapped in them. So a live pet would be right out.

    And while he has admirers, for some very unknown reason, he has no friends, because he always, always, always tries to take advantage of them. And eventually, even any one dumb enough to think about being his friend stops having that idea. Any dog or cat knows that instinctively. And aren’t that dumb in the first place.

  85. 85.

    Miki

    @Miss Bianca: Yup. Yup, yup, yup.

    I’m caring for my rescue miniature poodle as he transitions through kidney failure (daily sub-Qs, multiple meds, not wanting to eat, night-time restlessness, diarrhea) and wondering what to do next. I love the breed – but not the poorly bred temperaments like this little guy has. If I have another dog in me I want it to be a poodle, but bred for temperament and health. And I want to support the breeders who are committed to those dogs. Much as I love this little guy our journey has not been easy and it’s never surprised me that he was picked up as a stray and never claimed.

    That said, I’m aware that there’s probably more crap-shootedness to dog owning than anything else (aka luck). But a good, responsible breeder can tilt things in good directions more than random doggy fucks. [Except, of course, for the asshats who breed deformed, suffering dogs like the peke who won Westminster this year.]

  87. 87.

    Miss Bianca

    @Cheryl Rofer: Awww….

    I’m sitting and watching this with my older dog, Roxy the Wolf Girl, as the thunder crashes overhead. She hates thunderstorms – I was told by her former person that Roxy and her sister were kept out in the yard as puppies and lightning struck and killed the other pup. Sounds like a good reason to be afraid of thunder to me! : (

  88. 88.

    Rand Careaga

    My dog Ravi, a German Shepherd/Husky mix—he favors the Teutonic side of the family, but vocalizes like an Alaskan—must be slightly older than Champ, because he was almost but not quite full grown when he came to us a month after the 2008 election. My wife was volunteering for a local rescue organization at the time, and they asked her if we’d be willing to foster a large dog in Hollister that would otherwise be euthanized by COB.

    On his way to Oakland, he was detained in nearby Fremont, where he left his testicles (and acquired his name), and accordingly arrived with stitches and the Cone of Shame, which we were instructed to leave in place for, I think, forty-eight hours. The poor creature was frantic, and we decided to remove the apparatus, a gesture that must have seemed to him the first good thing that had happened since he arrived at the pound, and probably secured us his devotion.

    This was the period following the 2008 crash, and Hollister was one of many areas in California enduring massive foreclosures. We suspect that Ravi, who arrived very well socialized and utterly trusting of humans, had formerly lodged with a loving family who could no longer keep him. He has retained that trusting attitude: we joke that if someone broke into the house, his response would be “Er, the cabinet next to the fridge, top shelf, is where they keep the freeze-dried liver treats. If it’s not too much trouble…?” Fortunately, his sweet nature is belied by his considerable size and his wolflike appearance, so the local villains—the neighborhood does not altogether want for these—who observe him leaving and entering the premises appear thus far not to have tested his response.

    Ravi will be fourteen at year’s end, and while he’s visibly lost a step, he’s still fairly frisky, particularly when a walk or a ride is in prospect (he’d be easy to abduct, regarding any open car door as an invitation), and appears to be enjoying life. I hope we have a few more years together, and wish to hell that the creatures came with an extended warranty option. I know that I’ve taken enormous moral improvement ever since, late in the Cheney Shogunate, I’ve been attempting to live up to Ravi’s opinion of me.

    He’s a very good boy.

  91. 91.

    SWMBO

    We came by our current pack in a long and winding road. We had a complete rollover of the pack in 2010. We started with Max and Missy, acquired Pixie, Gromit, and Zoe during the year and Max and Missy died during the year. Zoe and Gromit were my sister’s dogs. We sent Zoe back and she died at my sister’s house. Gromit died a couple of years later. Pixie was the only dog and she went on a destructive tear. She destroyed things that she wouldn’t otherwise have looked at (CPAP mask, shoes, power cords among other things). A former coworker of my husband married a veterinarian and knew we were looking for a puppy. One of their clients had her daughter’s dogs give birth to a litter of six puppies. The vet’s wife got two of the girls and we went to look at the three boys. We took two of them and left the third. It broke my heart to leave him. I cried. I whined. And then nine days later I went back and got the third brother.

    Pixie stopped her destruction as soon as she had another dog in the house.  They were ten weeks old when we got them. She was playing with them and rolled over on her back to let them practice taking down prey. They took one look at the milk bar and latched on. WHOA!! You just threw your bucket down a dry well there, guys.

    The last girl was spoken for so I didn’t take her as well. There are all different kinds of rescues. The owners had the dog go into heat while they were moving to Florida from Pittsburgh. They didn’t have a pot to pee in nor a window to fling it out of. We gave them gas cards for each of the dogs and pinkie swore we’d get them fixed. Which we did. They are a bonded pack and devoted to each other.

  92. 92.

    Paul Begala's Pink Tie

    @Miki: bless you for caring for this dog. We are a cat family and all our cats have been rescues, but two of them had kidney disease and administering subQ fluids is no fun. At first they struggle, but when they stop struggling and just let you do it, you know that’s the sign. I hope your little one has a peaceful, comfortable end.

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