Lemme level with you real quick. You may be a dog lover like me. You stop to pet them on the street, you snag pics and send them to your S.O. "just because" *wink, wink*...you get the gist. But Queen Elizabeth II was waaaaay more than your average, run-of-the-mill dog lover.
The late Queen might even be more of an ~animal aficionado~. Like, she bred over 14 generations of pups (namely corgis ??) kind of aficionado. One royal expert even declared to Newsweek that the breed was the Queen's first and most enduring love. "She loves animals and she absolutely adores dogs. She always has done, they were her first love and they will be her last," royal biographer Ingrid Seward told the publication just after news of the monarch's death broke. That's why, once the saddening news was announced, it didn't take too long before people's attention turned to her beloved pets with the pressing question: What will happen to the dogs now that the Queen has died?
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Before you start pulling boxes of tissues out, don't worry! The royal pups are gonna be just fine. But if you *are* curious about the Queen's dogs, then keep reading, and don't be shocked if by the end of this article, this is you hightailing it out of your nearest pet shop:
Before her death, the monarch had four dogs she looked after, including two corgis named Muick and Sandy, a mixed corgi-dachshund named Candy, and a cocker spaniel named Lissy. The eldest of the bunch is Candy, corgi-dachshund mix (aka a "dorgi"), who is believed to be 13 years old. V cute and beachy pic, incoming:
...buuuuuut it didn't really end up working out that way. In 2018 when her dog Whisper died, it was rumored that the Queen didn't want to add any more to the family. The reason? It was reported she told her horse trainer friend Monty Roberts, "She didn't want to leave any young dog behind." ??
However, we know that the monarch wound up welcoming two more dogs to her royal family in recent years: Muick and Lissy. When Prince Philip was hospitalized in 2021, she was gifted Muick, who is named after one of her favorite summer retreats, a spot near Balmoral Castle. As for Lissy? The disgraced Prince Andrew and the Queen's granddaughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, gifted her to the monarch on what would have been Philip's 100th birthday last June, according to The Independent.
The House of Windsor welcomed their first corgi in 1933, when Elizabeth's father, King George VI, brought home a puppy named Dookie for the family. The pup was thought to be named after her father, the Duke of York at the time ( 'kay, I 'm sensing a theme here).
Then at age 18, the Queen was given her own first corgi, Susan, whom she loved so much that she even smuggled it under a rug in the royal carriage for her honeymoon in 1947. It's really giving "if they wanted to, they would" vibes, and I, for one, am here for it.
Over the next six decades, the monarch would have more than 30 of Susan's descendants and gift many of them to family and friends (and obvi keep some for herself). She was so dedicated to her pets that, until it became too difficult for her, Queen Elizabeth would walk her pups twice a day *plus* they even had their own room at Buckingham Palace aptly named "The Corgi Room," where they were looked after by two footmen called "Doggie 1" and "Doggie 2." Again, If! They! Wanted! To! They! Would!
Because we're all pretty invested by this point, I 'm happy to report that the bbs will be just fine in the wake of the Queen's recent death. "The entire family are dog lovers and so any one of them could take a dog or two," royal author Claudia Joseph told The Post. "Andrew has cocker spaniels so he might take back the one he gave her. William and Kate also love dogs so they could have them. Or there is a chance they will continue to be looked after by the palace staff so that they don't need to be moved."
Royal biographer Ingrid Seward also told Newsweek, "I imagine the dogs would be looked after by the family. Probably Andrew [as] he's the one that gave them to her, they're quite young, the corgi and the dorgi."
Uhm, hi @ Royal Palace! I 'm also v free and willing to take care of a few (read: all of them) for ya!