While doing a little research on the Queen’s Jubilee this week, I’ve stumbled upon article after article about her favorite breed of dog – the refined, somewhat height-challenged Welsh Corgi. Over the years, our family has been privileged to share our territory with many breeds (and mutts of mixed breeds too), but the one that stole my heart, the one that was part of the Rocker and Bride’s childhood, the one that would run into the ocean and be swept away if we weren’t careful, was the magnificent and hilarious Corgi.
“Corgi sales are soaring, spurred on by the Jubilee. Liz Hoggard explains how the royal pet has become the subject of artworks, topiary and blogs.” http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/dog-save-the-queen-corgis-surge-in-popularity-7799955.html Yes, I even found a place to buy Corgi shaped cookie cutters!
For us, it all began with a visit to a Corgi breeder in NJ after we’d moved back among family. Was it my way of coping with the guilt of moving my 7 year old daughter away from her sweet, nursery and elementary school friends? Probably. I was expecting to pick out a cute little teddy bear puppy, golden colored without so much as a hint of a tail. But the Bride was very “hands on hips” in those days, and declared that a dog “must” have a tail. So Tootsie Roll came home with us; a Cardigan Welsh Corgi (the kind with tails, not the Queen’s choice) who was a tri-color and looked just like her name, black and white with red on her ends. My sister Kay immortalized her in a needlepoint pillow. Her moniker was, “Lightening Legs” since she coaxed everyone into ball games with a tactic I call the “Corgi Dance.”
Later, Her Hinnyness Toots had puppies, and then it was the Rocker’s turn to pick one to keep. Tootsie had been bred to a champion (well, aren’t they all) who was a most beautiful Sable color. 
All the puppies looked like daddy, and my son chose the alpha male in the group; the biggest, first born with the most beautiful shock of white on his forehead, Blaze (see pup at right in above picture with daughter). This mama/son team would sprint out of the house in formation like the Blue Angels, zig zagging their way around the yard, chasing squirrels and herons and sniffing out rabbit holes in the swamp tributary behind us. Depending on the tide, many a day their little legs were covered up to the belly with organic/smelling/black, swamp mud. My vet was the one who told me to look into getting a Corgi. We had an older German Shepherd at home, and he said it would be like going from the “…sublime to the ridiculous.” He smiled as he said that, we had become friends and his daughter was our pet sitter. I knew he loved Corgis, and he knew I would too!
Ms Bean is here because I thought I saw a Corgi on a local news show about a bunch of rescued puppies from a puppy mill. When I got to the vet in another county to take this poor creature home, it turned out it was a Papillon (easily mistaken with those big, foxy ears) and someone else had gotten there first. On my way home, I stopped at the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA and came home with Beaner, my heart just had to be filled.
MountainMornings 