The real Flash is a cat. She was probably born on 1 April 1997. We found her at the end of October 1997, when she was a bundle of misery and was critically ill. After first aid, she appeared fully recovered, and we were delighted with the little ball of fur that we had adopted.
As she is jet black, with two flashing yellow eyes, her name was an obvious choice: Flash (also appropriate for a photographer's cat).
It soon emerged that Flash was sicker than we realised. She had a benign tumour in her left ear, which was pressing against her skull inside the auditory canal, causing a chronic ear infection. That ear also has a piece missing (lost in some catfight or other).
The ear infection had to be very carefully treated. Every two days, the ear had to be cleaned with an oily liquid and every month, she had to be examined by the vet (we visited him so often that we started calling him Uncle Bart).
When Flash Communication came into being, we were looking for a suitable name and logo. We wanted something that could symbolise the care that we aimed to devote to our work. So we adopted Flash's ear as our logo, and the name was self-evident…
When Flash had been with us for about 6½ years, the tumour disappeared spontaneously, and never came back (no more tedious cleaning of her ear, and now she only goes to visit Uncle Bart once or twice a year for the usual vaccinations).
These days, Flash is enjoying a carefree cat's life, but once or twice a year, she has to work for her living; she becomes a real photo model, and we take photos that we use in our own communication.