(slideshow [ap/king5])

Ladies and gentlemen, it is now officially o.k. to change out of your mourning garb. Since February, when beloved gubernatorial Pomeranian Franz was killed by a car [mb], Washingtonians have been without a First Dog. Today, our long petless nightmare has ended.

At a press conference, Christine Gregoire introduced us all to the newest resident of the Governor’s Mansion. Trooper, an eight-week-old Japanese Shiba, made her debut this morning and set off cuteness overload meters across the Evergreen State. KING presents a puppyrific slideshow and archived video to better acquaint citizens with the fluffy new First Pet [#].

edit: how weird is it that the P-I‘s link to the story about Franz’s death now points directly to their new story about Trooper’s arrival? No respect for dead dogs.