Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson has shared photos of the Queen’s beloved corgis in their new home at Royal Lodge, Windsor, as she celebrated her 62nd birthday.
The Duchess of York posted an Instagram gallery of Muick and Sandy on the lawn with the caption “the presents that keep giving”.
Her followers wished the duchess a happy birthday and said the dogs looked happy and healthy.
Ferguson and ex-husband Prince Andrew took on the dogs when the Queen died last month and they are now living at the home the former couple shares.
In 2021, the Queen was given two new puppies, one dorgi and one corgi, as a gift by Prince Andrew while staying in lockdown at Windsor.
The puppies kept the delighted monarch entertained while the Duke of Edinburgh was in hospital and Buckingham Palace and the royals were dealing with the bitter fallout from the Sussexes’ Oprah interview.
The Queen named the dorgi Fergus after her uncle who was killed in action during the World War I, 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 — and the Queen named it Sandy.
The puppies were a constant source of joy for the monarch during lockdown, her dresser Angela Kelly said.
After the Queen’s death, Muick and Sandy were rehomed with Andrew and Sarah.
Previously, the Duchess told The Telegraph it was “a big honor” to care for the dogs which were “national treasures”.
Queen Elizabeth was an avid dog lover who owned more than 30 corgis and dachshund-corgi mixes, known as “dorgis,” in her lifetime.
Muick and Sandy played a poignant role in the funeral to their devoted owner.
The dogs in leads were brought into the Windsor Castle quadrangle for the arrival of the Queen’s coffin ahead of her committal service in St George’s Chapel.
Muick and Sandy were in the charge of two royal pages, in red frock coats, and the pair took time to stroke the dogs as one of the animals laid with its head on the ground.
Many of the Queen’s corgis were direct descendants from Susan, who was given to her as an 18th birthday present from her parents in 1944.
The Queen had fallen in love with her father’s George VI’s dog Dookie, a Pembrokeshire corgi, and wanted one of her own.
Susan was so loved that she accompanied Princess Elizabeth on her honeymoon.
-with AAP
