It’s no secret that Queen Elizabeth II was a great animal lover. In fact, her famous pet corgis are probably the most well-known pets of any leader around the world. As news of the monarch’s passing on Sept. 8 spread, the question of her famous pups became a point of interest.
So what will happen to them?
The Queen was believed to have four dogs: a dorgi named Candy, two cocker spaniels and two corgis named Sandy and Muick. While there’s no official plan of action on who’s going to take care of the dogs now, royal biographer Ingrid Seward said her children will probably inherit them.
“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,” Seward told Newsweek.
Another British author, Penny Junor, said it’s also possible that the Queen’s servants will take care of the animals.
“Care of the dogs has fallen sometimes to footmen but mostly to the Queen’s trusted dressmaker, assistant and right-hand woman, Angela Kelly; and to her equally trusted page of many years standing, Paul Whybrew, who was seen walking with the Queen and the dogs in the James Bond spoof.”
That spoof is of course one of the few times the Queen appeared in an acting role. She appeared with then James Bond actor Daniel Craig in a segment filmed to publicize the 2012 London Olympics. The corgis practically stole the show in that video. Take a look below:
As the Queen aged, there was an unwritten rule that she get no new dogs. But her son Prince Andrew decided to break the rule and gift his mother two puppies after the death of her husband Prince Philip last year.
Junor said the Queen’s love of animals is part of what makes her so endearing to the public.
“It is her love of dogs, as much as anything else, that enables so many of us to feel we have a special connection with,” she wrote in her book All The Queen’s Corgis. “Strip away the wealth, the privilege and the palaces, and the bond she has with her dogs is no different from the bond the rest of us have ours, no matter our station in life.”