Jester du Canis Dirus

Some of the sympathy cards I've received: The First Time I Met Jester (from Will) Walking by Meier's house (minding my own business), out of the corner of my eye, I saw a "wolf like" 120 pound mass of black fur headed right at me! I froze as I took in the eyes, the muscles, the ferocious looking and massive jaws. Jester froze too. Then, to my temporary relief, he turned and dashed off. But, then he was back! But this time ... he had his "throw toy" in his mouth! He wanted me to PLAY! Many times after that first contact, Jester saw me and brought me his beloved toy! Jester turned his life into one of joy and service ... Roger, Jester was truly a great dog and we feel privileged to have had him hanging out in our yard when he was young, playful and endlessly patient with our boys. When you came to paint our house that summer, our older boy Andrew was quite frightened of dogs, especially large ones. But he saw how gentle Jester was when our younger boy, Eric, began to play fetch with him. Pretty soon, Andrew's fears were completely conquered, and he began to play with Jester as much as his brother did. Jester had a wonderful personality - a therapeutic presence just by being himself. Roger, We are so sorry to hear about Jester passing on. He was a wonderful soul, and I'm so glad we were able to get to know him. Jester certainly lived a full life. We'll always remember him - and our thoughts and prayers are with you.

I'm sorry I can't adequately describe the sight of Jester running figure eights through a large happy screaming mob of little children, all of whom were trying to catch him. This scene was repeated often when Jester was age 7 through 10, as there happened to be a lot of small children living in our neighborhood those years; and of course Jester spent a lot of time outside entirely on his own in our unfenced yard. Unfortunately, I had no camcorder available those years. Please picture it, then enjoy Jester's videos.

After playing any of the videos below, you can restore their title pages by refreshing your browser.

     Excellent music ahead.
     Set speaker volume to 30 if media player volume is set to 100.

     First, click on the full-screen symbol. Wait for Microsoft's
     defacing nonsense to disappear, then click the play button:

Jester at 10 1/2 years, summer 2004: rogcad.com/jester
Photographs by Randy Flacksbarth Click images for larger version.
J e s t e r Born February 25 1994 Passed away July 10 2009
Jester never missed a day of work in over fifteen years, making friends with hundreds of people he met in the neighborhoods of my various job sites. Never fenced, never tethered, never supervised, he changed lives everywhere we went. Happy mobs of children routinely flocked to him. While I was working on the back side of a client's house, Jester would be in the front yard engaging passers-by and making friends of them. JESTER'S MUSIC VIDEOS (further down) We make videos of our pets in order to help us remember what good lives they had. Jester was a very public dog, so he's been given this website with his videos. Some of the sympathy cards I've received: The First Time I Met Jester (from Will) Walking by Meier's house (minding my own business), out of the corner of my eye, I saw a "wolf like" 120 pound mass of black fur headed right at me! I froze as I took in the eyes, the muscles, the ferocious looking and massive jaws. Jester froze too. Then, to my temporary relief, he turned and dashed off. But, then he was back! But this time ... he had his "throw toy" in his mouth! He wanted me to PLAY! Many times after that first contact, Jester saw me and brought me his beloved toy! Jester turned his life into one of joy and service ... Roger, Jester was truly a great dog and we feel privileged to have had him hanging out in our yard when he was young, playful and endlessly patient with our boys. When you came to paint our house that summer, our older boy Andrew was quite frightened of dogs, especially large ones. But he saw how gentle Jester was when our younger boy, Eric, began to play fetch with him. Pretty soon, Andrew's fears were completely conquered, and he began to play with Jester as much as his brother did. Jester had a wonderful personality - a therapeutic presence just by being himself. Roger, We are so sorry to hear about Jester passing on. He was a wonderful soul, and I'm so glad we were able to get to know him. Jester certainly lived a full life. We'll always remember him - and our thoughts and prayers are with you.
How good a dog was Jester? Click here.


Turn up your speaker's volume, then click in a video box below.
I'm sorry I can't adequately describe the sight of Jester running figure eights through a large happy screaming mob of little children, all of whom were trying to catch him. This scene was repeated often when Jester was age 7 through 10, as there happened to be a lot of small children living in our neighborhood those years; and of course Jester spent a lot of time outside entirely on his own in our unfenced yard. Unfortunately, I had no camcorder available those years. Please picture it, then enjoy Jester's videos. After playing any of the videos below, you can restore their title pages by refreshing your browser. Excellent music ahead. Set speaker volume to 30 if media player volume is set to 100. First, click on the full-screen symbol. Wait for Microsoft's defacing nonsense to disappear, then click the play button:

My animation from 1998: Jester
Roger Luebeck roger@rogcad.com