The Duke of York and his ex-wife will look after the Queen’s beloved corgis following her death. But there remains speculation as to where the late monarch's spaniel Lissy will live.
A spokeswoman for Andrew said he and Sarah, Duchess of York will take on Muick and Sandy – two dogs the late monarch received as gifts from her son. The Queen owned more than 30 corgis during her reign and was known for her love of the breed
But there is speculation over where Lissy will be homed. It is believed the four-year-old dog currently lives with her trainer, Ian Openshaw, and therefore may not find herself moving in with her fellow canine siblings and Prince Andrew, the Mirror reports.
In February, Queen Elizabeth II broke her dedicated corgi tradition to welcome award-winning cocker spaniel Lissy into her family. The pooch is listed under the official pedigree name Wolferton Drama, but is also nicknamed Lissy after the queen.
As well as being a rare choice of breed for the Queen, Lissy recently won the 91st Kennel Club Cocker Spaniel Championship, seeing off 38 competitors to gain the top spot. This makes her the Queen's first gundog champion. Gundogs, also known as bird dogs, are hunting dogs who assist their owners in finding and retrieving game.
In early 2021, The Queen was given two new puppies, one dorgi and one corgi, as a gift by Andrew while staying at Windsor during lockdown.
The puppies kept the monarch entertained while the Duke of Edinburgh was in hospital and Buckingham Palace and the royals were dealing with the bitter fallout from Megxit and the Sussexes’ Oprah interview. The Queen named the dorgi Fergus after her uncle who was killed in action during the First World War, and the corgi Muick, pronounced Mick, after Loch Muick on the Balmoral estate.
But the monarch was devastated when five-month-old Fergus died just weeks later, in the aftermath of Philip’s death. He was later replaced with a new corgi puppy, from Andrew and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie for her official 95th birthday, who the Queen named Sandy.
The puppies were a constant source of joy for the Queen during lockdown, her dresser Angela Kelly said. Andrew, flanked by Beatrice and Eugenie, thanked well-wishers for lining the route back to Balmoral after the royal family attended a prayer service on Saturday.
The Queen’s love of corgis was celebrated during Platinum Jubilee events, with a gathering of 70 corgis at Balmoral and a “corgi derby” at Musselburgh racecourse. Most of the Queen’s corgis were descended from her first corgi, Susan, who was gifted to her on her 18th birthday in 1944.
The Queen looked after her own dogs as much as possible and during weekends spent at Windsor, the corgis went too and lived in her private apartments. She fed them whenever her busy schedule permitted and also enjoyed walking the dogs.
