A Look Back at Queen Elizabeth II’s Bond With Her

Not only was Queen Elizabeth II the monarch to a nation and matriarch to the British royal family, but she was also a beloved dog mom.

Throughout her 70-year reign, the Queen—who died on Sept. 8 at the age of 96—lovingly cared for dozens of pups, including a gaggle of corgis. Her fondness for pooches began at a young age and, after she was gifted a corgi named Susan by her father King George VI on her 18th birthday, she was never far from from a four-legged friend again. Legend even has it that Her Majesty brought Susan along to her honeymoon with Prince Philip.

But the Queen’s love of dogs extended far beyond the corgi breed. In fact, she had a hand in creating the dorgi, a cross-breed of dachshund and corgi, when her corgi Tiny mated with Princess Margaret‘s dachshund Pipkin in the 1970s. Since then, the Queen continued to be a pet parent to both corgis and corgi-mixes, as well as a number of cocker spaniels. 

In celebration of her 90th birthday in 2016, the royal appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair with four of her furry companions: corgis Holly and Willow and dorgis Vulcan and Candy. Overall, the Queen owned more than 30 different pups—many of whom were descendants from her first dog Susan—since she ascended to the throne in 1952. 

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