Assistance Dog (Golden Retriever), H.M.A.S. KUTTABUL, Royal Australian Navy. From a photograph by ABIS Chantell Brown ©Commonwealth of Australia. Artwork ©2019 Victoria Kitanov (Watercolour, 30 x 40 cm.).

While employed at the Naval Heritage Collection in Sydney, I found a beautiful image of a golden retriever in a to-be-discarded piece of newspaper wrapped around a piece of ship’s memorabilia…and fell in love with this golden boy!

The article read: ‘An assistance dog, trained to help people with post-traumatic stress disorder, takes part in the commemoration of H.M.A.S. SYDNEY II at Martin Place Cenotaph, Sydney’  – Navy News (Gangway, 3 December, 2015), p. 21.