Just how or when the Pembroke Welsh Corgi and its northern cousin ,the Cardigan Welsh Corgi, came to be no one knows. Welsh people know the sturdy little Corgi has been a familiar sight watching over the cattle and guarding the homestead in Wales for many centuries. With the Corgi seeming to have been in existence in Wales forever, it is natural that many legends and fireside stories about Corgi's passed from one generation of Welshmen to the next. One such legend provides a charming tale for the curious of how the Corgi came to live in the hills of southwestern Wales. According to the legend, some young children out tending the family's cattle on the king's land found a pair of puppies, which they thought were little foxes. When the children took the puppies home, they were told by the menfolk that the little dogs were a gift from the fairies. The "wee folk" of Welsh legend used the small dogs to either pull their carriages or as fairy steeds. As the foxlike puppies grew, they learned to help their human companions watch over the cattle and sheep and any other animal the farmer had a desire to have, a task that was to be the duty of their Corgi descandants for many centuries thereafter. Should anyone doubt the truth of the legend, the present-day corgi still bears the marks over his shoulders of the little saddle used by his fairy riders.

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