Queen Elizabeth stepped out for an in-person, maskless event on Saturday. The event? A visit to the HMS Queen Elizabeth, a flagship carrier of the Royal Navy. Apparently, the naval officers call the boat “Big Lizzie.” It is a very big boat! And it’s “hers” in the sense that she christened it and it’s named after her and she goes and visits it every so often. She’s more of a mother to that boat than she ever was to half of her kids!
Little Lizzie wore a matching red coat and hat for the event and literally no one wore masks. I mean, I’ve been shocked to see how quickly people have taken off their masks here in Virginia, but we have a higher percentage of the population vaccinated than England. All of those Naval officers just raw-dogging the air. Lord. Liz also wore a “Scarab” brooch which was a gift from Prince Philip in 1966. It’s yellow gold, “carved ruby” and diamond and it is… not one of her best. It’s totally a sentimental piece and I understand that and it’s fine. But those carved rubies photograph like cheap, opaque amethysts. Apparently, Liz has had recent another loss after losing her husband.
Queen Elizabeth must now mourn the death of the new puppy that was meant to help her cope with the death of her late husband Prince Philip. The monarch adopted two dorgis—a cross between a corgi and a dachshund—in February, shortly after her husband was taken to the hospital, naming one Fergus after her WWI veteran uncle and the second Muick, pronounced Mick, after one of her favorite places, Lock Muick at Balmoral Castle, her estate in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
It was thought that the Queen had given up getting new dogs after her corgi Vulcan died in October of last year; however, her son Prince Andrew gifted her these two puppies to keep her company after Philip fell ill. But over the weekend, it seems that Fergus, who was around five months old, died suddenly. A Windsor Castle insider told The Sun, “The Queen is absolutely devastated. The puppies were brought in to cheer her up during a very difficult period. Everyone concerned is upset as this comes so soon after she lost her husband. On top of that there’s been the problems with her grandson, Harry.”
And it looks like those issues with Harry won’t be settled anytime soon either. Another source confided to Us Weekly that following the Duke of Sussex’s appearance on Dax Shepard’s podcast, Armchair Expert, the royal family is once again upset by how they’re being portrayed in the press. “The queen is unimpressed with Harry’s latest interview and found it hurtful. It hasn’t done their relationship any favors,” they said, adding that Prince Charles and Prince William are “livid too” over the podcast conversation and wish Harry would “discuss” his “opinions” in private.
I’m of two minds about how the Queen feels about Harry – I think she adores him, still, and wants him to be happy, but she understands that what he’s doing is damaging the institution. I’m not sure if she feels like she needs to be the one to stop him though. She’s clearly being used as a figurehead in all kinds of ways, while Charles and the courtiers do all kinds of dirty work. As for the death of one of her puppies… that’s really sad. Andrew gave her those puppies before Philip passed away too, and she’s been enjoying taking them for walks around Windsor and all of that. I wonder what happened.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Not sure if this will be allowed as it’s a link and not related to the dogs. But i just read this long-read and thoroughly enjoyed it..
https://www.royalfoibles.com/the-queens-favorite-bastard/
Sorry if not and i will wait for an andrew post to share!
Good grief that first photo in the link, Andrew is the spitting image of Porchy.
I’m very sorry to the Queen for her loss. It’s always really awful to deal with a pet’s death, even a small puppy that hasn’t been around for a long time. 🙁
This is sad. The death of those puppies probably had more impact on the Queen than all the fake outrage over Meghan and Harry. I wonder at 93 if the TQ really cares. You know if she is over all the Queening. Is she looking back on all of her years with any regrets or things she’s trying to atone for now. What’s most sad is that she can’t just say enough. I’m tired and I want to enjoy my remaining years doing me. Sort of what Phillip was able to do. But we know the Brits want allow that. They will suck every inch of life out of this women until her last breath. What a horrible trade off when all is said and done.
My goodness, what a story!! Thank you for the link! Who knew Elizabeth had a roll with a handsome man, and he was handsome!!! Leave it to petty Phillip to torture Elizabeth since he couldn’t name his children after himself, since she was queen. Since he knew that would happen, he never should have married her since he knew beforehand. A bunch of petty people on the Salty White People on the Island in England, that’s for certain!!
I had that red coat with black velvet collar when I was five.
Heard about the puppy yesterday. The Biden dogs were tweeting pictures of him, very cute. That’s very sad.
Other outlets are reporting that Fergus died of a congenital heart defect that should have killed him much earlier than five months of age. This is troubling to me because it suggests that a competent vet did not examine the puppies prior to their releases to pet homes.
I co-breed Cavalier Kong Charles Spaniels with my mentor, and we get puppies checked for congenital defects at about two months of age prior to determining their forever homes. Juvenile heart murmurs occasionally happen, but they outgrow them by six months of age. We do not release a puppy to a pet home until it is cleared by veterinary specialists. Period. This is exactly the kind of heartbreak we want to avoid.
Yes. The puppies came from Andrew, which does not surprise me.
knowing Andrew, he probably got them from a puppy farm breeder (the British term for what we call puppy mills here in the US), which means poor breeding and minimal, if any, vetting prior to being sold
Isn’t this the puppy Andrew gave her even though she said she didn’t wants any more dogs because they’d outlive her at this point and she wouldn’t be around to take care of them herself? Looks like he rushed to give his mom a dog so he could get some good publicity. Now the poor dog’s passed away and she’s grieving.
I thought it was rushed. They were released to the Queen at eight weeks of age. The general rule is that the smaller the breed of dog, the longer the puppy should stay with mom. We do not release ANY of our Cavalier puppies until they are at least 12 weeks of age, have the first two series of puppy vaccines, and have been fully vetted. We take them to a veterinary ophthalmologist to check for congenital eye issues and a veterinary cardiologist if they have murmurs. No matter what the vets say – good or bad – we inform our potential puppy buyers. At the end of the day though, any puppy with a serious congenital defect stays with us and is not sold. We would never knowingly inflict this kind of emotional and financial pain on a pet buyer!
I thought that was the story, too. That she wouldn’t get any more dogs once the last of her corgis died.
If Andrew got the puppies for her, he probably didn’t do his due diligence to make sure it was healthy. The person who sold/gave it to him probably knew.
I can see Andrew* getting the cheapest puppies available. However, if the breeder knew to whom the puppies were going, I’d imagine the breeder would want to make the best impression possible. Either way, poor puppy. I hope the surviving one isn’t too lonely.
*tinfoil hat time – Andrew knew there was something wrong with the dogs but wants to drive his mother to her deathbed before more revelations come out about him (so that she can’t rewrite her will).
I am of two minds about this. From what I understand, many breeders in the UK are not as conscientious about health testing as in the US. I also feel fairly certain that Andrew himself did not buy these puppies; he arranged for a middleman at Windsor to buy them and the breeder was left in the dark about their ultimate owner. On the other hand, it is very possible the breeder knew the puppies were going to the Queen, chose the two best looking ones, and allowed them to leave early without being fully vetted, believing that the Queen would have access to the very best veterinarians and would simply return a puppy with health issues. It is also possible that symptoms of this heart defect did not manifest until after the puppy arrived at Windsor, but honestly that would be a 1 in a million case. A good breeder KNOWS when a puppy is not 100%, and heart problems usually show up early and clearly – cold extremities, failure to thrive, bluish-white gums, exercise intolerance, etc.
It says more to me about Andrew. Why would he give his mother a puppy that didn’t receive a complete health work-up. You would think that would’ve been the first thing he did but Andrew thinks only of himself. I bet the Queen isn’t surprise that Andrew gave her a sick dog.
Cav King Charles Spaniels are my favorite breed of dogs. I know there is way more to it, but still – getting to play with all those puppies much be so fun at times.
I cannot lie – they are always fun! And so smart and sensitive!
Yeah that’s more emotion than she showed when Meghan was suicidal.
THIS.
Aw that is very sad, my puppy is 6 months, I would be devastated if something happened to him.
I’m rolling my eyes that they just had to bring Harry into it. “her puppy died, her husband died, and HARRY!!!”
Oh give it some time. I won’t be surprised if they somehow spin it as H & M’s fault
“Fergus collapsed shortly after listening to Armchair Expert with The Queen”
Having lost a pet once, I understand how devastating it is. I feel for anyone who loses a pet.
But the cynical part of me wouldn’t put it past a courtier to kill a puppy in order to guilt trip Harry for causing her more pain. “Look, Harry! How can you still hurt this family with your talking when the Queen’s PUPPY just DIED!? Have you NO heart!?”
Sad about the puppy, but what a weird article. Her grief is compounded by “the problems of her grandson, Harry.” Which problems would those be, exactly? The way the RF treated his mother, the way they treated his wife and child, the way the forced HM to leave the family, the way they been slagging them in the press all this time? Too bad Harry’s “problems” are interfering with grief over a dog.
RIP to the little puppy. Sounds like she was more broken up over this than the death of her husband of seven decades though, IJS. 🤐
What happened to the news that a senior Roal would always be by Lizzie´s side when in public, to support her?
Windsors are trash. Maybe Pedo Andy just got the dog free of charge, no questions asked.
The HMS QNLZ is on its way to a deployment out in the Middle East and the entire crew had to quarantine for 14 days before embarking. That’s why no one is wearing masks. It’s a closed environment, there is no way you could get thousands of people working onboard in close quarters for months at a time to avoid infecting each other even if everyone wore double masks 100% of the time and social distancing is literally impossible. Source: I just completed working on the carrier strike group’s pre-deployment exercise.
That’s interesting. It seems like the queen and her team would be putting people on the carrier at risk then since they didn’t quarantine with the crew, presumably. Or was the event totally separate with the crew not coming into contact with them and no one who did come into contact with them coming into contact with the crew?
I mean, the queen is vaccinated and I highly doubt anyone in her entourage is not vaccinated by this point. The UK in general has opened vaccines up to people in their early 30s recently and >60% of the adult population has had at least one shot. I think an outdoor event on the deck of an aircraft carrier is a pretty low-risk activity for a group of fully vaccinated people.
That seems like even more reason for the Queen and her handlers to all be in masks.
All i can think of is how the courtiers love to conflate things and/or tell lies to further their own agenda.
Recall how they used phillip’s illness & death to try to muzzle the Sussexes. And how theyre using the queen-is-in-mourning to continue trying to turn public opinion against the Sussexes for spkng out or doing anything for that matter.
I cant tell u how much I despise tht rotting institution and the ghouls tht run it.
When I worked with a cat rescue group, one of our concerns with adopting to people over 70, was, who will take care of the cat if their person passes away first?
On the other hand, seniors are home for more hours, so the pet gets more attention and studies have shown that pets help prevent depression, especially among senior adults.
Fortunately, people are recognizing that having pets and having a plan for the pet’s future, is an important part of taking care of seniors.
However, as the Queen had said she didn’t want any more dogs and pets should never be given as gifts, what was Andrew thinking? It just shows his selfish personality.
My local shelter has a “Seniors for Seniors” program, where senior animals are adopted out to vetted senior citizens for a greatly reduced fee. It’s a win-win: the people get a companion, and animals that might’ve spent the rest of their lives in a shelter get to spend their final years in a loving home.
She has lost a LOT of weight in the last month since Phillip’s passing. That coat is hanging off her, and her legs are tiny. Her whole world is adrift.
Poor soul. She is always devastated about something.
Having lost a beloved feline in the past week I’m feeling for her loss. With that said, when the story came out that Andrew gave her a puppy, his IQ points went down even further in my mind, if that’s even possible. Nonagenarians and puppies don’t seem to be the best pairing to me.
@iconoclast, the Seniors to Seniors program sounds like a great program. Pairing of olds living out their days together just seems like a better decision.
The scarab brooch is a wonderful piece by the famous British jewellery Andrew Grima. Grima worked in the ‘’brutalist’’ style that was prominent in the 70s. That happens to be my favourite jewellery era. This style is a big departure from the typical traditional Garrard jewels favoured by the royal family.