Jester is our little old man. Jester has been a little old man since I brought him home when he was 5 and 1/2 weeks old. His best days are when we go back to bed after breakfast. His main talents include finding really good napping spots, locating sunny spots in the house to bask in, and scrounging for scraps under the bird cage.
Jester came to me on October 31st of 1997 from a grungy little trailer in the Nevada desert. Everything that “they” tell you is the wrong way to get a dog, that’s how I got Jester. I saw a sign up at my vet’s office for 5 week old pug puppies. I had been talking to breeders, and was lined up for a pup in February, maybe, if all went well with delivery, and that was ok. It was supposed to be a black male, I had three big girl dogs and didn’t want any more girls. Oh, what can it hurt if we just stop by and look, I thought. We’re headed past there today anyway. We found the place, and they met us out front with three little puppies. I immediately said “Oh, my little man” and gravitated towards Jester. He was the cutest little bitty thing. His sister was very dark and “smutty” - black tips on her hair. His brother was brindle - odd, I’d never seen it before, but cute. The daddy pug was in the window barking, and throwing himself into the glass. They said the mama dog was locked up because she bit strangers. Bad, bad, bad. And yup, I took him home anyway. Scrounged under the car seats for change to scrape together the $150 they were asking for him. I have never, not for one moment, regretted it.
Jester, from the first, took me on as his responsibility. I carried him around in my jacket pocket for months and babied him in the worst way. I played around with teaching him obedience and tricks, but the girls were my working dogs, Jester’s job was to be cute and snuggle. He was good at it, still is. He was nothing but fun as a pup. My mom liked him so well, that I went back to the infamous trailer park a few months later to see if they were planning on having more. Mama dog, had in fact, given birth just three days earlier, only one puppy (gee, I wonder why), and it was a brindle male. I gave them a deposit and told them to let me know when to pick him up. Mama dog ended up rejecting him at 3 weeks old, so we took him home, gave him to my mom, and we bottle fed him. Turns out Jester and J.B.’s (Jester’s Brother - get it!) mother was half Boston Terrier and half Pug. Dad was all Pug and actually nice looking. Mom, well, not so much. I got to meet her when I picked up J.B. Yikes. I gave them my money - they hiked the price up to $200 for this one - and ran far, far, away. So Jester is taller than the average pug, and leaner, and J.B. is brindle with a more Bostonish face. Jester inherited all pug temperament, and J.B. definitely has terrier personality. We joke that the reason he was an only puppy is because he ate his siblings in the womb!
Both boys have given up many years of joy, laughter, and comfort. They are our buddies, and both so full of themselves. J.B. was an only dog for years, and ran my parents lives until about 2 years ago when little Piper came home. Hehe. Jester has always been one of a crowd. When he was a baby I had big girl dogs, and when Redwood died, I brought him Teak. He’s still waiting for her to go back to her real mommy. Jester has been the king until Dyson moved in. A boy dog, in Jester’s house. It has not gone well. I don’t know that he’ll ever forgive me for this one, but he seems to have at least made his peace with Dyson and has stopped taking cheap shots at the big dog.
Jester doesn’t really do any sports. Why really, when everyone worships you as you are? He’s pretty good at obedience, and could do agility if he wanted to. He is slower, but much more methodical than Teak on obstacles. He likes it if there are cookies, but competition? Forget it. The last time we competed he was in he took off like a bat out of hell - across the field to bark at a flapping flag on the edge of the ring. At least he had fun. Jester doesn’t see the point of flyball, way too much effort involved with that, so he is happy to be a team mascot and sit on my lap and watch. Jester’s strongest skill is helping me to remember when it is dinner time and they should be fed. The other dogs would surely starve if he didn’t represent for them. He does however, simply adore lure coursing, where you chase a bag on a pulley system. Man does he go crazy - I must take him out more to play this game he loves.
There really aren’t enough words for my old dogs. The original pack, Jester is the last of them. The mighty three - Redwood, Rowan, and Jester - they saw me through a lot of life. We traveled together, moved around the country, and these are the dogs who got me through my 20’s. They were everything when it was just me against the world. Now it is Jester and the new kids. Teak, Dyson, and Karma. It’s different, but good. Jester is still the king, I just make him wear old man cardigans now, which he doesn’t mind. (He LOVES to wear clothes) I hope that as my little man eases into old age, his life is happy and comfortable, that he will rest always in blankets that have been arranged specifically for his needs.
Love you Jester Pester
Very interesting… as always! Cheers from -Switzerland-.