Lord Byron Lord Byron’s love of pets was immortalised in his epitaph to his beloved Newfoundland dog Boatswain. The epitaph is inscribed on the dog’s monument at Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire. The first verse reads “Near this Spot are deposited the Remains of one who possessed Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, and all the virtues of Man without his Vices”. Boatswain died of rabies and to the end Byron nursed him, unafraid of becoming affected himself. At university he was not allowed to keep a dog, so he kept a tame bear instead. As well as numerous dogs he kept a variety of animals including six cats, four monkeys, a crocodile, assorted bird species, a fox and a badger.
Queen Victoria Queen Victoria was a devoted pet lover, and it was she who gave royal patronage to the SPCA making the RSPCA who offer insurance for a range of pets through More Th>n. In her lifetime she owned many dogs, but of them all she was most devoted to a Pekingese called Looty and given to her by Captain Hart Dunne who had taken it from the Summer Palace in Beijing during the 1856 Opium War. As the time Pekingese were considered by the Chinese to be sacred.
The Maharaja of Junagadh India’s last Maharaja of Junagadh loved dogs, in fact he was truly obsessed with them. He had 800, and each one had its own room and butler. Often he would dress them in evening suits and his servants would drive then around the estate in rickshaws. He even organised a wedding between a Bobby, a golden retriever, and one of his hounds, lavishing £22,000 on the ceremony (in todays money around £1 million).
Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth is a pet lover who is particularly fond of Corgis. Since her coronation she has owned 30 of them. As you might expect they have received special treatment. The Queen Mother, who also kept corgis, insisted that they each had their own basket and meals selected by veterinary experts served in their own special dishes.
Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair and Humphrey We will finish with a slightly different slant, three Prime Ministers and a cat called Humphrey. Humphrey was the official mouse killer at 10 Downing Street from October 1989 until November 1997. Humphrey enjoyed a good relationship with both Margaret Thatcher, John Major, but it wasn’t to be the case with Cherie Blair who considered Humphrey to be unhygienic. It is alleged that she had him evicted though by all accounts to a good home where he lived happily until his death in March 2006.