They say you should never work with children or animals but when you’re a member of the royal family you have little choice in the matter.
Senior royals carrying out their engagements are often required to meet, pet and be photographed alongside all sorts of creatures – and no matter how well-trained the animal, things don’t always go to plan as Queen Camilla discovered last week.
Her Majesty the Queen invited a group of medical detection dogs and their trainers to her home at Clarence House, where Labrador Maggie was tasked with presenting a gift basket to her.
But Maggie forgot her manners that day and, instead, just dropped it grumpily at Camilla’s feet, much to her amusement.
Here CLAUDIA CONNELL looks at some other beastly encounters had by the royals in the line of duty…
PUPPY LOVE…
Catherine, William and their children are big dog lovers and have a lively pet cocker spaniel called Orla who often appears in official portraits with the family.
William and Kate meet new therapy puppy Alfie, an apricot cockapoo during a 2020 visit to meet staff and patients at Clitheroe Community Hospital
No doubt Kate was used to boisterous doggy behaviour and took it all in her stride when she met therapy puppy Alfie at Clitheroe Community Hospital in 2022. The 10 week old cockapoo wriggled in Kate’s arms and tried to lick her face but she still found him ‘so sweet’ adding ‘our dog is going to be very upset.’
CARROT AND LICK
Kate and William took nine-month-old Prince George with them when they visited Taronga Zoo in Sydney while touring Australia in 2014.
Feeding time for the giraffes as William and Kate visit Taronga Zoo in Sydney. The 2014 tour of Australia was William and Kate's first official trip overseas with Prince George
However, they wisely handed him to a nanny when it was time to feed carrots to a giant giraffe. From the look on his face, William appeared stunned to learn that it isn’t just a giraffe’s neck that is super long – their tongues are also 20 inches long!
AM I BOVVERED?
Long before the late Queen Elizabeth had tea with Paddington Bear, Kate and William met Leuca the koala bear on a state visit to Australia in 2014.
Kate stroked and tickled Leuca and even sniffed his fur to see if he smelt of eucalyptus.
Koalas are notoriously laid back and lazy as the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge discovered when Leuca showed no interest in them whatsoever.
TRUNK CALL FOR HER MAJESTY
‘Pleased to meet you Your Majesty.’ The late queen was estimated to have shaken hands with close to one million people during her reign, but this was probably the only time she was offered a trunk.
In fact Donna the elephant wasn’t looking for a handshake at all, she was much more interested in the bananas the Queen and Duke were holding when they visited Whipsnade Zoo in 2017.
THE OUTLOOK IS WARM… AND WET
There aren’t many women who’d be quite so amused at having their make up licked off by a giant dog.
However, as patron of Guide Dogs, Sophie is used to such enthusiastic greetings when she visits training centres around the country. Here she is receiving a very warm and wet welcome on a visit to Forfar in 2019
PAWS FOR BREATH?
Sophie and her family have two pet dogs and a tortoise that according to Prince Edward ‘basically runs the house.’
It was an adorable golden retriever puppy who had the run of Sophie when she visited the Guide Dogs National Training Centre in 2021 when she, wisely, donned a lab coat to protect her clothes from the playful pups.
SCRATCHY PERFORMANCE
Corgis were the favourite dog of the late queen who was thought to have raised more than 30 of them during her reign.
When the queen visited a housing site in Darwin in 1977 she met up with an Aussie corgi, owned by some local residents.
While the humans were on their best behaviour, the doggie displayed some very ill-mannered behaviour when he sniffed the queen’s feet and promptly plonked himself down on them for a scratch.
DOE-EYED INTRUDER
‘Don’t trip me up, there’s a deer.’
Back in 2008 Charles and Camilla (then the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall) visited the Todaji Temple in Nara, Japan, where hundreds of wild deer roam the estate. At least they were a lot smaller and cuter than the giant beasts that roam Balmoral.
BARKING MAD
Queen Camilla is so besotted with her two rescue dogs Bluebell and Beth that she had the Jack Russell Terrier’s faces embroidered onto her coronation gown.
Charles and Camilla adopted the dogs from Battersea Cats and Dogs home, of which she is patron. As this picture of Charles, taken in 2022 with Beth shows, he is just as besotted – although he did stop short of having them embroidered on his coronation robes.
TERRIER-FIED – NO FEAR!
Terrified of a terrier? Not Queen Camilla!
She attended the Great Yorkshire Show in 2021 and presented a rosette to a pair of terrier pups, who couldn’t wait to get their muddy paws on it….and came perilously closes to dirtying Camilla’s polka dot dress too.
I'LL SHOW YOU MINE…
‘Eyes to camera and smile,’ nobody could accuse this horse of not co-operating at the press call.
Camilla, herself a keen and skilled horsewoman, visited the International Horse Show at Olympia in December 2008, meeting many of the competing horses…but none of them left quite such a lasting impression as this scene-stealing grey – despite his teeth being in need of a jolly good clean!
REGAL REPTILE
One knows how to handle dogs and horses but what on earth do you do with a Tuatara lizard? The royal couple got up close and personal with the native creature on their tour of New Zealand in 2015.
Camilla decided against holding the reptile, but Charles’ anxiety at holding the slippery creature only made her collapse into giggles.
