The last of Queen Elizabeth’s beloved pet corgis has sadly passed away.
Willow, one of the dogs who starred in the famous James Bond sketch at the 2012 London Olympics, was put to sleep at Windsor Castle over the weekend at the age of 14.
The Daily Mail reports that Willow was suffering from a “cancer related illness” and the Queen did not want her to suffer anymore.
An insider told the publication the Queen is especially heart broken over the death of Willow.
“She has mourned every one of her corgis over the years, but she has been more upset about Willow’s death than any of them,” the Insider says.
“It is probably because Willow was the last link to her parents and a pastime that goes back to her own childhood. It really does feel like the end of an era.”
Watch the Queen’s heartwarming connection to her beloved pups in the video below. Post continues.
Queen Elizabeth has been passionate about them since she was a child, but her Majesty quit breeding corgis after more than 70 years.
The 91-year-old monarch has owned more than 30 Pembrokeshire Welsh Corgis over the years, but told her animal advisor Monty Roberts she didn’t want any more in 2012 because she didn’t want any left to grieve for her when she dies.
“She didn’t want to have any more young dogs,” Roberts told Vanity Fair. “She didn’t want to leave any young dog behind. She wanted to put an end to it.”
In 2016, Holly, The Queen’s second last Corgi passed away.
The pup had been suffering from a number of painful complications related to old age, and it was decided the animal should be put down.
The corgis are survived by the Queen’s two dachshund-corgi crosses Vulcan and Candy.
The Queen with her corgis in 1969.
Princess Elizabeth got her first corgi in 1933, when her father King George VI brought home a pup called Dookie. She started breeding them a few years later and all her dogs are descended from Susan, the dog she was given on her 18th birthday.
To this day, the monarch is believed to feed and walk her dogs herself and is extremely particular about their diet, as royal biographer Brian Hoey revealed in his book Pets by Royal Appointment.
There is no canned food in sight – the corgis dined on fillet steak and chicken breast specially prepared by a Buckingham Palace chef.
At 5pm sharp, a footman delivers the meals to the Queen, who adds the finishing touches herself, pouring gravy over the steak or chicken.
Hoey says the corgis were so pampered the Queen even hires a homeopath to treat them whenever they are ill.
When at Buckingham Palace, the dogs slept in raised wicker baskets in a room near the royal apartments, where they roamed freely.
But Hoey claims Prince Philip “loathed” all the Queen’s dogs – including her two dachshund-corgi crosses – “because they yap too much”.
