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Former senator's beloved dog, Dakota, dies
Former Sen. Kent Conrad’s (D-N.D.) beloved canine companion, Dakota, has died.
Conrad told the North-Dakota-based website Inforum.com his bichon frise — a constant presence at the Capitol — lost a battle with lymphoma last week.
The fluffy white pup was often seen by Conrad’s side up until he retired from the Senate earlier this year. The former Budget Committee chairman tells the site, “In some of our [budget] negotiations, colleagues would ask if I could bring Dakota. He calmed everyone down.”
Dakota was so popular that Conrad, 64, joked to ITK in December that the dog was weighing his political options, saying, “He’s thinking of running for the Senate.”
Conrad told us late last year that he and his wife were shuttling their faithful four-legged friend to the University of Texas’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center for T-cell treatment as part of a research project. Dakota, who Conrad estimates was about 10 years old, had been in remission from cancer three times. According to the ex-lawmaker, scientists had called the T-cell research very promising for humans.
But Conrad says he was told the rescue dog only had a few days to live after his cancer returned last week.
“He was such a jaunty, confident and happy little dog,” Conrad said. “And he was cute — he just put a smile on people’s faces. And so that’s how I’ll remember him.”
