Shadow

Shadow went over the Rainbow Bridge on Friday, December 28, 2007.  We miss her terribly.  This page is dedicated to our doggy.

We got Shadow in September of 1995.  Mark and I were engaged, and he was going to be moving into a rental house his parents owned, so he was allowed to have pets.  I wanted a Golden Retriever, and Mark wanted an Australian Shepherd.  We visited the Humane Society, but Mark thought the dog I liked was too active.  Then I saw an ad in the paper for a litter of Golden/ Australian crosses, and I knew that one of them was perfect for us!  We called and they informed us that the only two remaining dogs were black.  No matter, we were after the temperament anyway.  We had planned a party that day, so while I prepared to greet our guests Mark went out to get a puppy.  I let him know that if he came back without one there had better be a darn good reason!!  He didn't let me down, arriving at the party about an hour later with the cutest little black puppy!  She was friendly with everyone, and played all afternoon.  Eventually she got sleepy, but even then she struggled to stay awake. 

Shadow is a very sweet dog.  It turns out that she doesn't have any Australian Shepherd in her after all--she's half Border Collie instead--but of course Mark doesn't care.  She is gentle with children, and loves attention. She loves to play with her stuffed porcupine, and chase a ball or frisbee in the park.  Her favorite treat is BONZ. Every day she gets a walk to our neighborhood park or around the neighborhood, and she gets to sleep on the bed, in between Mark and I.  Unfortunately, Shadow is getting older and now has to be lifted onto the bed and due to arthritis can no longer play ball or frisbee.

Shadow's favorite food is baked goods.  She loves everything baked from biscuits, to muffins, to cookies, and Cake. She even enjoyed our wedding cake -- on our first anniversary.

Following are some favored memories of Shadow:

• She was an excellent frisbee dog, especially when Monica was the one throwing and she knew exactly which way the frisbee would hook.
• She was a bed hog. In her younger days she would actually lay on top of us if we were cuddling until we split apart and she could be in the middle
• When she was a puppy, we had a metal sprinkler head.  One of her favorite things to do was to push it around the back patio with her nose and then growl at it and attack it. Also as a puppy we returned home one day to find she'd eaten the entire potted cactus garden. She was pretty sick after that.
• Aside from a terrible incident when she was a puppy when she ate my roommate Roxane's childhood lovey, she instinctively knew the kids' toys from her own. She would never chew on their stuff, but if it was her porcupine, watch out! She would carry them around for a week or two and then one fateful day, just gut them.
• When she was about five, we had a bunch of people over for a barbeque. She pretended as if she just wanted pets from Mark's friend Pete, and while he was distracted giving her some love she whipped her head around and grabbed his hamburger right out of his hand.
• Our dining room table still bears scratches from the time we walked into the room to find Shadow ON the table, all four paws!  We're still not sure what she was thinking.
• When Mark and I were first married, he called me at work very angry to ask why I had finished all of the muffins we'd baked the day before, because he was looking forward to having them for breakfast.  Uh, no, I did not eat a dozen muffins.  Shadow.....
• Shadow never was very good in the car.  She got very worked up, barking and whining the entire ride, even if it was a five hour drive! And heaven help you if you used your blinkers, her excitement reached a fever pitch.