In a week of joys for new Gov. Mark Dayton, he has had to deal with grief.
His beloved dog, Dakota, died Wednesday morning.
Dayton found out late last year that Dakota, one of the governor's two Black German Shepherds, had cancer and was taking her to treatment, which he had hoped would extend her life for a time.
The 8-year-old Dakota, along with Dayton's male dog Mesabi, were near constant companions for Dayton. He took them on the campaign trail with him and even caused a minor political scuffle when Republicans suggested he treated them ill by leaving them in a hot car while he was at the Capitol. (The dogs were parked in the shade and a staffer had checked on them -- they were fine.)
Dayton joked that he modified former President Harry Truman's advice that, "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog" by getting a dog when he became a Senator and then got another one so his dog would have a friend.
Dayton wrote on his Facebook page Wednesday night that he was "terribly saddened to report" that Dakota died Wednesday morning.
"I went downstairs to my living room at 5:30 a.m., and gave her some pets and water. When I came back downstairs an hour later, she had passed away, after battling cancer for the past three months. Her brother, Mesabi, and I will miss her enormously," he wrote.
He called her "my protector and pal."
