Posted: May 27, 2009, 5 a.m. EDT
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has decided to stop breeding Corgis after two of her nine dogs died recently, The Sun newspaper reports.
The 83-year-old monarch has bred the dogs since 1944, when her parents gave the then 18-year-old princess her first Corgi, Susan. The 30 or so dogs the queen has owned have all descended from Susan, who died in 1959.
“It’s hard to imagine her walking around Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle without them around her feet,” a palace insider told the newspaper.
“But it’s a sign she realizes she is getting older and can’t look after such a large pack.”
The queen’s remaining seven dogs, including four Corgi-Dachshund mixes, range in age from just a few years to around 10.
“By the time her younger dogs reach old age she will be about 90 and so it makes sense not to replace any that die,” the source said.
Royal watcher and author Phil Dampier says the queen is devoted to her dogs.
“The queen feeds them from the table with tidbits and even mixes up some cooked meats, biscuits and gravy every tea-time, which she puts in silver bowls,” he says.
“It will be hard for her not to breed any more of them but she’s made a decision for sensible reasons.”