A 7-year-old beagle named Mamma Mia has been accepted by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle into their family. Learn more about the family’s newest, lovely baby.
Simply put, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were unable to resist seeing Mamma Mia.
The 7-year-old beagle was recently adopted by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after being rescued from a Virginia breeding facility that was allegedly guilty of numerous safety violations.
“The Duchess called me personally,” Shannon Keith, an animal rights attorney who runs the Beagle Freedom Project, told the Los Angeles Times on Aug. 24, revealing that the call led to the couple stopping by the non-profit organization earlier this month.
Although Mia was rescued along with eight of her newborn puppies, as Shannon explained, the pair fell in love with the beagle mom instantly during their visit. “The Duchess is holding Mia and was like, We’re adopting her,'” Keith said. “‘We want ones we can help who are older.'”
But before they departed with their newfound family member for her new home in Montecito, Keith said Prince Harry noted that Mia couldn’t be without a keepsake. “He’s just like, Well, we can’t leave yet because there’s something in that back house she needs,'” Shannon recalled. “‘Does she have a favorite toy or something?'”
And after Mia grabbed a fox toy that she had played with for the duration of her trip from the facility to the organization in Los Angeles, they were set. As Shannon shared, the Duke said, “OK, now we can go home.”
Mia isn’t the first furry friend to join Meghan and Harry’s family. Before tying the knot, Meghan was already a dog mom after adopting a beagle named Guy and a pup named Bogart from a rescue shelter. In August 2018, shortly after the pair wed, they expanded their family by adopting another rescue dog, a black Labrador named Pula.
“After a life spent being forced to give birth to litter after litter of puppies destined for laboratories,” Kitty Block, president, and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States told the New York Times on Aug. 24. “I can think of no more fitting happily ever after’ than being adopted by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.”