Sarah Ferguson Gives Update on Queen Elizabeth’s Corgis on 1st Anniversary of Her Death

Sarah Ferguson is offering an update on Queen Elizabeth II‘s two beloved corgis exactly one year after Her Majesty died.

Sarah, Duchess of York took to Instagram on Friday and posted a photo of her and the dogs, Sandy and Muick, spending quality time in the outdoors. The corgis look like they’re having a blast with Sarah, who shared that the dogs are “thriving.”

“As we mourn a year on, we also celebrate the wonderful times we shared with Her Late Majesty the Queen,” the duchess wrote in her caption. “She entrusted me with the care of her corgis Sandy and Muick and I am delighted to say they are thriving.”

The update comes nearly two months after Sarah shared on her Tea Talks with the Duchess and Sarah podcast that the dogs are “showing her the way” on the old trails and paths the queen used to take them on. It was Sarah and Prince Andrew who gifted the late monarch the pets.

In her podcast, Sarah, who had been recovering after undergoing a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery following a breast cancer diagnosis in June, shared that she hadn’t been as mobile as of late, and that she had to rely on dog walkers to get her seven dogs back on their daily walks.

“Having seven dogs — they don’t understand that perhaps I’m not as mobile as I was,” Sarah told co-host Sarah Thomson. “So, they’re going, ‘Hello?! Come on. It’s all about me.'” The dogs are very needy.”

Following the queen’s death last year, Dr. Roger Mugford, an animal psychologist who previously worked with the late monarch’s dogs, told ET that the corgis were likely aware of her death, given “dogs are very perceptive of changes in their owners.” 

“I’m sure they knew that Her Majesty was in decline and they will have missed her,” Mugford told ET, before adding that he doubted “there will be serious changes in the grief, because they were so used to being cared for by other members of the household.”

As her health declined, it was Sandy and Muick who brought her joy in her final days.

“It was so lovely that, in her last couple of years, she had two little corgis and other dogs around her,” Mugford said, “because there’s no doubt that any of us, at any stage in our life, but particularly when our life feels like it’s declining and stressful… to be able to reach and stroke and be loved by an uncritical admirer, which is a dog, is a great comfort.”

Fans will never forget that the pooches were loyal to the queen until the bitter end, even lining up outside as Queen Elizabeth’s coffin made its final procession.

The image was “a touching” one, Mugford said.

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