As Prince William surprised mourners waiting outside Westminster Hall to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II on Saturday, one had a pressing question on her mind: How are the late Queen’s beloved corgis faring?
“I saw them the other day,” the recently anointed Prince of Wales, 40, said in response.
“They’re being looked after fine. They’re two very friendly corgis. They’ve got a good home, they’re being looked after very well.”
The woman looked rather relieved to hear this, offering her condolences to William before he continued down the line.
It’s widely known that Queen Elizabeth harbored a lifelong adoration for the dog breed.
When she died on Sept. 8 at the age of 96, she left two of them behind: Muick and Sandy, along with a cocker spaniel named Lissy. Another one of her much-loved pups, an elderly dachshund-corgi mix named Candy, reportedly passed away just months before the Queen‘s death.
As Prince William alluded, Muick and Sandy have already safely moved in with Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson – with whom he still cohabitates – at their shared residence in Windsor. Meanwhile, Lissy is reportedly staying with her trainer, per E!.
As previously reported, it was back in 1933 when Queen Elizabeth II received her first corgi, Dookie. The pooch was gifted to the then-7-year-old by her father, George VI.
Then, on the Queen’s 18th birthday in 1944, her parents gave her another corgi-pup, this one named Susan.
It’s been reported that, of the more than 30 corgis Queen Elizabeth was said to have owned over her lifetime, many were Susan’s descendants. The lineage sadly ended in 2015, however, when her last living progeny, Willow, died at the age of 15.
The Duke and Duchess of York brought Muick – along with another pooch named Fergus who tragically succumbed to a congenital heart defect very shortly thereafter – into the Queen’s life in March of 2021 to cheer her up in light of her late husband Prince Philip’s declining health. The late Duke of Edinburgh died at the age of 99 that April.
From there, Sandy found her way to Buckingham Palace on the occasion of the Queen’s 95th birthday.
She seemed to have no problem fitting right into the royal lifestyle, easily making her way into the monarch’s heart after the loss of her husband.