Rep. Tony Cárdenas was unusually alone in his Rayburn office that day, hiding from a mob as he watched the violence unfold on television.
His office felt especially empty without Teddy, the Cavapoo mix who accompanies communications director Clarissa Rojas to work. Teddy is almost always there, but not on Jan. 6, 2021. Rojas had left him with a friend because of a weird gut feeling, and she wonders if he would have been able to handle it.
Cárdenas missed him. “Believe me, if Teddy would have been there that day, or one of my staff had their dog or the rabbit there that day, it would have helped me. I think it would have just helped the energy overall, because it was a very tense and a very heartbreaking moment,” the California Democrat said.
