As the world now knows, Queen Elizabeth II of England died yesterday at the age of 96 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Prince Charles will take her place as king, and today addressed the UK to speak about his mother and the royal family.
But there are a multitude of questions now about how things will proceed from here — and none so pressing as the question of what will become of the Queen’s beloved corgis.
Queen Elizabeth owned over 30 pets in her lifetime, the majority being Pembroke Welsh Corgis, her favorites. She received a corgi named Susan for her eighteenth birthday, and all the corgis she had thereafter were descendants of Susan’s. At the time of her death, the dogs in her care were corgis Muick and Sandy, a cocker spaniel named Lissy and a dorgi — a dachshund-corgi mix — named Candy.
A Vanity Fair article from 2015 covered the Queen’s love of and relationships with her corgis, and one particular detail from the piece came up yesterday on the timeline: after the death of her corgi Monti in 2012, the Queen reportedly said she wanted to stop breeding the dogs, because she didn’t want any puppies to be left behind after she herself died.
And so, of course, the facetious speculation and memes began.
Royal guard solemnly entering the corgi wing of Buckingham palace and weeping as they tie tiny blindfolds on the dogs they've got left pic.twitter.com/qtM0f0GX94
— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) September 8, 2022
To be clear off the bat: no one is killing any royal corgis. The dogs will likely be given to other family members, whether together or separately.
Now that that’s out of the way: back yesterday’s most chaotic Queen-related memes, from laments that the corgis would be killed to some, uh, alternative theories about what might happen to them.
the corgis seeing their handler walk in today https://t.co/fuYN3E6KKg pic.twitter.com/4uSzjG1V6o
— heartbreaker charles from pokémon (@snidelaughter) September 8, 2022
the corgis running for their life rn https://t.co/TksQA59BFC pic.twitter.com/w9MdesDbpq
— ana (@mightbeana) September 8, 2022
I just watched them take all of Queen Elizabeth’s corgis out of Buckingham Palace and shoot them execution style out back :(
— julia hava (@binchcity) September 8, 2022
Seal Team Six please save the corgis
— Bill Corbett (@BillCorbett) September 8, 2022
Breaking: John Wick is heading to Buckingham Palace to stop The Royal Guard from killing The Queen's Corgis pic.twitter.com/J6ZPmwWAUO
— Jesus (@BrokeBoyInFilm) September 8, 2022
Cute! Queen Elizabeth's Corgis Prepare to Be Buried Alive With Her: https://t.co/bXcRgMl85o pic.twitter.com/kDEvzIQ4J6
— Reductress (@Reductress) September 8, 2022
The Corgis waking up to this news: https://t.co/MnJddF4TAe pic.twitter.com/ecF0BZqYtf
— 👑〽️ (@xUnknownMx) September 8, 2022
the corgis hearing everyone weeping pic.twitter.com/g9jq2QBmIZ
— owen! (@yoshicrossing) September 8, 2022
Los corgis corriendo antes de que los entierren vivos pic.twitter.com/c2EQNjXCz1
— Jorgito (@unjorjito_) September 8, 2022
Wild that the queen requested her surviving corgis be mummified to serve her in the afterlife
— Vinny Thomas (@vinn_ayy) September 8, 2022
Wait who gets to eat the leftover corgis
— Alex Edelman (@AlexEdelman) September 8, 2022
the curse will now lift, the corgis gradually begin to return to human form
— Mildo (@ThoughtSlime) September 8, 2022
this has 1984 Dune energy pic.twitter.com/L41n8cketi
— Seth on the Nihil (@lordsoftheseth) September 8, 2022
