Shadow

John Baxter - the prolific film biographer, critic and writer once told me his daughter was named Lulu. She had been named "after" Louise Brooks. And the great English short story writer and essayist Angela Carter once wrote, "If I ever had a daughter, I would name her Lulu." We name the things we love after those things we love.

With great sadness I report the passing of my beloved dog, Shadow. When my wife and I adopted her some 11 years years ago, we had almost named her Lulu in tribute to Louise Brooks. But there was something not quite fitting about the name in her case, despite a physical and behaviourial resemblance. Instead she became Shadow. Our black cat, who was named Ebony, had recently passed away. And in looking through a name book, we came across the curious "Ebony's Shadow." Thus, our little two month old puppy, our little almost Lulu, became Shadow.

Shadow was a sweet dog. She once stepped on a vintage film magazine I had carelessly left on the ground and her claws punctured the soft paper cover. Another time, she chewed up a copy of an old Viking Portable collection of crime fiction. Often, when I would be sitting at my computer composing a blog or adding to the LBS bibliographies, she would come into my room and look up doefully at me with her dark eyes and say "Hey, lets go outside and play." Here is a picture of her at play, with a tennis ball in her mouth.

Louise Brooks was a dog lover. I can think of at least three or four pictures of her with her canine pets. Rest in peace, Shadow. I miss you.