Photos: US Presidential pets through the years

US First Lady Jill Biden pets one of the family dogs, Champ, after he arrives from Delaware at the White House in Washington. President Joe Biden announced Saturday that Champ, the older of the family's two dogs, had died "peacefully at home.'' The German shepherd was 13. "He was our constant, cherished companion during the last 13 years and was adored by the entire Biden family,'' Biden and first lady Jill Biden said in a statement posted to the president's official Twitter account. The Bidens are spending the weekend at their home in Wilmington, Delaware.

Joe Biden pets his dog Champ at the White House. The Bidens got Champ from a breeder after Biden was elected vice president in 2008. Champ was a fixture at both the vice president's residence at the Naval Observatory and the White House. In their statement, the Bidens said that when Champ was young, he was happiest chasing golf balls on the front lawn of the Naval Observatory.

"In our most joyful moments and our most grief-stricken days, he was there with us, sensitive to our every unspoken feeling and emotion,'' the Bidens said. Champ's passing leaves the Bidens with their younger German shepherd, Major, whom the family adopted from the Delaware Humane Society in 2018. The Bidens could occasionally be seen walking their two dogs on the White House South Lawn, and the dogs sometimes would join the president on trips to Camp David or visits home in Delaware. Above, file photo from May 10, 2012, Jill Biden, with their dog, Champ, arrives to help assemble Mother's Day packages that deployed US troops have requested to be sent to their mothers and wives at home as part of a Joining Forces service event at the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC.

President Joe Biden's dogs Champ and Major are seen on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, March 31, 2021.

President Donald Trump was the first president since Andrew Johnson in the 1860s not to share the presidential digs with a dog or a cat - or even a raccoon, like the one kept by Calvin Coolidge in the 1920s. First lady Grace Coolidge, the wife of President Calvin Coolidge, shows her pet raccoon Rebecca to crowds of children gathered for the Easter Egg Roll at the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 18, 1927.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives his dog Fala his supper after "rolling over" in the White House study in Washington, D.C. in 1943.

John F. Kennedy, Jr., son of the president, feeds his dog, Shannon, on the walkway outside the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, October 24, 1963. Family dogs Wolf (left) and Clipper stand nearby with Kennedy's Personal Secretary, Evelyn Lincoln (left), and nanny to the Kennedy children, Maud Shaw.

Pasha, Vicki and King Timahoe, the dogs belonging to President Richard Nixon's family, look out an open window at the White House in Washington, D.C., December 1, 1970.

President Lyndon B. Johnson sings with his dog Yuki as Ambassador David Bruce looks on in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, D.C. February 6, 1968.

A member of the staff holds U.S. First Lady Jill Biden's personal bag with a picture of the presidential pets, German Shepherds named Champ and Major, as she prepare to board a plane in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S. May 6, 2021.

George H.W. Bush and family had several dogs in the White House, including Millie, the star of a children's book written by Bush's wife Barbara. First lady Barbara Bush pets her dog Millie while waiting with her granddaughter Barbara for President George H.W. Bush to arrive on White House steps in this undated photo in Washington, D.C.

President Gerald Ford and his dog Liberty sit in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., November 7, 1974.

Former President Barack Obama was dog-less while campaigning but promised his daughters Sasha and Malia a puppy during his acceptance speech after winning the 2008 election. Bo, a Portuguese Water Dog, moved into the White House in April 2009, a gift from the late Senator Ted Kennedy. According to the Presidential Pet Museum, the Obamas adopted a second dog of the same breed, Sunny, in 2013. President Barack Obama presents the first family's new Portuguese Water Dog puppy, Bo, on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington on April 14, 2009.

Socks the cat walks behind President Clinton, White House press secretary Mike McCurry and deputy Chief of Staff Sylvia Matthews, as they cross the White House lawn March 6, 1997 to the Marine One helicopter before Clinton's departure for Michigan.

George W. Bush's Scottish Terrier, Barney, flew on Air Force One and starred in 'Barney Cam' videos to celebrate the holiday season. "He never discussed politics and was always a faithful friend," Bush said when Barney died in 2013. President George W. Bush carries his pet dogs Barney (front) and Miss Beazley off Air Force One at Andrews Air Force base near Washington August 13, 2006.