Brisbane woman Kim Martin and her son Aidan have always felt a connection to Queen Elizabeth due to their shared love of corgis.
"I had corgis growing up and my son is also dog mad, so that’s how we got interested in the Queen’s corgis," she told ABC.
"It built a bond with this figurehead that we had the same dog breed as her."
So the mother and son were shocked to wake up on Friday to the news that Queen Elizabeth II had died.
"We were heartbroken," Mr Martin said.
"She’d always been Queen during both of our lifetimes and we were quite sad."
But the sombre occasion gave Ms Martin the opportunity to pull out a 2019 photo shoot with her son and the family's corgi, Coco — and post the photos on TikTok.
"My daughter does modelling, it's not my son’s thing but I asked him if he wanted to do a photo shoot with Coco and we could send the photos to the Queen," Ms Martin said.
Aidan was all for it and after the photo shoot, penned a letter to Queen Elizabeth II.
"My name is Aidan and I am 9 years old … I have an adorable pet corgi named Coco. She is the sweetest dog you will ever meet and I wanted to share with you, being a corgi lover yourself, a photo of her and I," the letter reads.
Signing off with a "woof woof", Aidan and his mum were not expecting a quick response, but around a month later a royal letter arrived in the mail.
It was from Dame Annabel Whitehead, one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting, saying how glad Her Majesty was to hear from Aidan and Coco.
Following the news of Queen Elizabeth's death, Ms Martin decided to post the photos of Coco, Aidan's letter and Dame Annabel's reply to TikTok, where they have now been viewed almost 75,000 times.
"All the comments where people have said ‘this has just made my day’, that’s made us feel really good," Ms Martin said.
Aidan is now approaching 13, but Ms Martin said he is still OK with the photo shoot.
"He’s at that awkward age, but he does like them because he loves Coco so much," Ms Martin said.
And as for Coco — well, she's thriving.
"She’s very well loved. On the public holiday we are going to make scones with jam and cream and celebrate all things Coco," Ms Martin said.
"I think next time we go to the dog park next she'll be the talk of it."
