Franklin's Foot Injury & The living pooper scooper

Franklin and his "scooper" collar

Last week, Franklin came in from the backyard after 5 minutes and was bleeding all over the sun porch. He somehow tore one of his back paw nails out (entirely). So, of course, I took him immediately to the vet where the cauterized, cleaned and bandaged it. Because he can't leave anything alone, he's had to wear an elizabethan collar (a large plastic wrap around his head for those non-dog owners).
  His foot is healing (I clean and bandage it often) but he's still wearing his collar. He bumps into things of course, but found another use for it when he's outside. "Scooping."
 - Okay, don't read the rest if you're eating. Franklin has a tendency to crave droppings. Some dogs do, and we'll never know why. Since he's had the plastic collar on, both Tom and I have "welcomed" him back in the house to find "stuff" smeared on the bottom of the outside of the collar (he was obviously trying to snack- eeeewww). Not a fun thing to deal with cleaning.
  Of course, we pick up the back yard daily, but tend to miss one or two "presents"- but he finds them. Anyway, we can't wait to get this thing off his head, although it at least prevents him from "dining."
  See? I told you not to read it if you were eating! :)
Oh yeah, his foot continues to heal...

A great way to help Service people with their Pets: Dogs On Deployment

I came across this organization that helps provide Foster Homes to dogs and cats owned by our servicemen and women (whenever they have to on tour). This is a great way to help them keep their beloved pets, as long as people open their homes to temporarily foster during that length of duty.  This is also a great way to help our Armed Forces. - Rob CATEGORIES: *I am a military member needing help *I am willing to foster a military member's pet while they're on deployment *I am a business person that supports the military and want to help Dogs On Deployment: Military members nation-wide confront a multitude of problems during their career. The last problem they want to worry about is what to do with their beloved family pet when it's time for them to deploy. Many service members have limited, to no options for their pets when they have to go overseas and many have relinquished their pets to shelters when they have nowhere else to go. Dogs On Deployment is a 501(c)(3) national non-profit which provides a central online database for service members to search for individuals or families who are willing to welcome a Dog On Deployment into their home for the length of their owner's deployment.  WEBSITE:   http://www.dogsondeployment.org/index.php

Another Backyard Project!

Tom lined this bed with small pavers

Tom is always looking for ways to improve the backyard and this weekend he lined one of the beds with small pavers and put larger pavers near the shed as a walkway. The other picture is just an area that he's been working on for a couple of years that has finally grown up and looks great. 

Tom added pavers near the shed- where the dogs run!

These trees and shrubs finally look good!

Presidential Proclamation -- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, 2013

I received this at work and thought this was amazing. This is definitely something that would never have been issued had the last election had a (horribly) different outcome. What amazing progress we've made.

Presidential Proclamation -- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, 2013

For more than two centuries, our Nation has struggled to transform the ideals of liberty and equality from founding promise into lasting reality. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans and their allies have been hard at work on the next great chapter of that history -- from the patrons of The Stonewall Inn who sparked a movement to service members who can finally be honest about who they love to brave young people who come out and speak out every day.

This year, we celebrate LGBT Pride Month at a moment of great hope and progress, recognizing that more needs to be done. Support for LGBT equality is growing, led by a generation which understands that, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." In the past year, for the first time, voters in multiple States affirmed marriage equality for same-sex couples. State and local governments have taken important steps to provide much-needed protections for transgender Americans.

My Administration is a proud partner in the journey toward LGBT equality. We extended hate crimes protections to include attacks based on sexual orientation or gender identity and repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." We lifted the HIV entry ban and ensured hospital visitation rights for LGBT patients. Together, we have investigated and addressed pervasive bullying faced by LGBT students, prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Federal housing, and extended benefits for same-sex domestic partners. Earlier this year, I signed a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in the implementation of any VAWA-funded program. And because LGBT rights are human rights, my Administration is implementing the first-ever Federal strategy to advance equality for LGBT people around the world.

We have witnessed real and lasting change, but our work is not complete. I continue to support a fully inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act, as well as the Respect for Marriage Act. My Administration continues to implement the Affordable Care Act, which beginning in 2014, prohibits insurers from denying coverage to consumers based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, which addresses the disparate impact of the HIV epidemic among certain LGBT sub-communities. We have a long way to go, but if we continue on this path together, I am confident that one day soon, from coast to coast, all of our young people will look to the future with the same sense of promise and possibility. I am confident because I have seen the talent, passion, and commitment of LGBT advocates and their allies, and I know that when voices are joined in common purpose, they cannot be stopped.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2013 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists, and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.

BARACK OBAMA

Stupidity in the News: NRA membership purchased for boy

8 year old Josh Welch and his pop-tart "gun"

This article appeared in the Baltimore Sun on May 30, 2013. A little boy chewed his pop tart into the shape of a gun - and the school (stupidly, in my opinion) made a big stink about it. The REALLY stupid thing is that 2 Republican officials (one was Nicholaus R. Kipke) in Anne Arundel County, Md. PAID for a lifetime membership to the National Rifle Association (NRA) for the little boy!!  

 - What kind of a message does that send? That it's perfectly okay for children to support guns? 8 year olds don't understand what guns can do (in the wrong hands) and what death means.

-   I totally agree with what Anne Arundel County Councilman Jamie Benoit (a Democrat) said: "To put this [8 year old boy] up there and exploit him for the benefit of the far-right gun agenda is outrageous."

  BTW- I'm fine with people owning guns, but feel that we DO need better, more comprehensive background checks.

ARTICLE: Md. Anne Arundel County Republicans criticized for giving lifetime membership to boy suspended in pastry incident

This #$*)% gave the 8yr old an NRA membership

May 30, 2013|By Erin Cox, The Baltimore Sun

   Criticism mounted Thursday over the gift of a National Rifle Association lifetime membership from Anne Arundel County Republicans to a boy who was suspended from school in March when he chewed a pastry into the shape of a pistol.
   "It's outrageous that elected officials in our state who don't have anywhere near all the facts of this situation would choose to exploit an 8-year-old child for political purposes in a stunt like this," Anne Arundel County schools spokesman Bob Mosier said Thursday.
  The night before, House of Delegates Minority GOP Leader Nicholaus R. Kipke presented Josh Welch with the $550 membership during a Republican fundraiser that derided Maryland's new gun law. Kipke's tongue-in-cheek presentation involved a Pop-Tart fashioned into a gun and firearm safety tips.
  After receiving the NRA membership, Josh said in an interview he didn't know what the organization was or what it meant. That comment prompted Anne Arundel County Councilman Jamie Benoit, a Democrat, to offer to buy Josh a lifetime membership to the American Civil Liberties Union.
  "No one should tolerate the attempt by Anne Arundel County's Republican leadership to indoctrinate 8-year-olds into an extreme way of thinking," Benoit said. "To put him up there and exploit him for the benefit of the far-right gun agenda is outrageous."

A Heartbreaking Story that all our Christian Friends MUST READ: What Do You Do When Your Son is Gay?

This is a Heartbreaking Story that all our Christian Friends MUST READ - a true story written by the mother of a son who came out to her (and who died as a result of being told he should not ever love). PLEASE READ IT.   

 (source: http://freedhearts.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/what-do-you-do-when-your-son-is-gay/) 

What Do You Do When Your Son is Gay?

Posted on April 22, 2013 by freedhearts

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“Mom, I’m gay.” Earth-shattering words to many conservative Christian parents — tragically, many view it as right up there with, “Your child has a brain tumor.” Actually, Christians will empathize with a brain tumor, but just try telling the church your child is gay and you will find the limit of grace withheld not only from gay Christians but from their accepting families. Not only what is said but unsaid can be oppressive for a family seeking love and truth.
I do not blame the parents in these situations for one nanosecond. Lord knows, they are trying to respond, with the wind knocked out of them, in an area where the church at large allows no breathing room. Parents blame themselves and Christians blame them. Seriously. No sooner do we hear the word gay or lesbian than we brace for impact — because we know the attack is coming.
This story was posted on FB. My daughter went to school with his brother. The mother, Linda, gave me kind permission to post this  in the hope of impacting lives and preventing tragedy. This is why our response as a Christian community matters. A real person with a real story.
The photo above is of Linda and Ryan Robertson.
Just Because He Breathes
by Linda Mueller Robertson (Notes) on Monday, April 1, 2013 at 12:35am
Written on December 5th, 2012
First posted on January 14, 2013 – Ryan’s would-have-been-24 birthday
On the night of November 20, 2001, a conversation held over Instant Messenger changed our lives forever. Our twelve year old son messaged me in my office from the computer in his bedroom.
Ryan says: can i tell u something
Mom says: Yes I am listening
Ryan says: well i don’t know how to say this really but, well……, i can’t keep lying to you about myself. I have been hiding this for too long and i sorta have to tell u now. By now u probably have an idea of what i am about to say.
Ryan says: I am gay
Ryan says: i can’t believe i just told you
Mom says: Are you joking?
Ryan says: no
Ryan says: i thought you would understand because of uncle don
Mom says: of course I would
Mom says: but what makes you think you are?
Ryan says: i know i am
Ryan says: i don’t like hannah
Ryan says: it’s just a cover-up
Mom says: but that doesn’t make you gay…
Ryan says: i know
Ryan says: but u don’t understand
Ryan says: i am gay
Mom says: tell me more
Ryan says: it’s just the way i am and it’s something i know
Ryan says: u r not a lesbian and u know that it is the same thing
Mom says: what do you mean?
Ryan says: i am just gay
Ryan says: i am that
Mom says: I love you no matter what
Ryan says: i am white not black
Ryan says: i know
Ryan says: i am a boy not a girl
Ryan says: i am attracted to boys not girls
Ryan says: u know that about yourself and i know this
Mom says: what about what God thinks about acting on these desires?
Ryan says: i know
Mom says: thank you for telling me
Ryan says: and i am very confused about that right now
Mom says: I love you more for being honest
Ryan says: i know
Ryan says: thanx
We were completely shocked. Not that we didn’t know and love gay people – my only brother had come out to us several years before, and we adored him. But Ryan? He was unafraid of anything, tough as nails, and ALL boy. We had not seen this coming, and the emotion that overwhelmed us, kept us awake at night and, sadly, influenced all of our reactions over the next six years, was FEAR.
We said all the things that we thought loving Christian parents who believed the Bible to be the Word of God should say:
We love you. We will ALWAYS love you. And this is hard. REALLY hard. But we know what God says about this, and so you are going to have to make some really difficult choices.
We love you. But there are other men who have faced this same struggle, and God has worked in them to change their desires. We’ll get you their books…you can listen to their testimonies. And we will trust God with this.
We love you. But you are young, and your sexual orientation is still developing. The feelings you’ve had for other guys don’t make you gay. So please don’t tell anyone that you ARE gay. You don’t know who you are yet. Your identity is not that you are gay – it is that you are a child of God.
We love you. We will ALWAYS love you. But if you are going to follow Jesus, holiness is your only option. You are going to have to choose to follow Jesus, no matter what. And since you know what the Bible says, and since you want to follow God, embracing your sexuality is NOT an option.
Basically, we told our son that he had to choose between Jesus and his sexuality. We forced him to make a choice between God and being a sexual person. Choosing God, practically, meant living a lifetime of loneliness (never to fall in love, have his first kiss, hold hands, share intimacy companionship, experience romance), but it also meant the abundant life, perfect peace and eternal rewards.  So, for the first six years, he tried to choose Jesus. Like so many others before him, he pleaded with God to help him be attracted to girls. He memorized Scripture, met with his youth pastor weekly, enthusiastically participated in all the church youth group events and Bible Studies, got baptized, read all the books that claimed to know where his gay feelings came from, dove into counseling to further discover the “why’s” of his unwanted attraction to other guys, worked through painful conflict resolution with my husband and I, and built strong friendships with other guys – straight guys – just like he was told to. He even came out to his entire youth group, giving his testimony of how God had rescued him from the traps of the enemy, and sharing – by memory – verse after verse that God had used to draw Ryan to Himself.
But nothing changed. God didn’t answer his prayer – or ours – though we were all believing with faith that the God of the Universe – the God for whom NOTHING is impossible – could easily make Ryan straight. But He did not.
Though our hearts may have been good (we truly thought what we were doing was loving), we did not even give Ryan a chance to wrestle with God, to figure out what HE believed God was telling him through scripture about his sexuality. We had believed firmly in giving each of our four children the space to question Christianity, to decide for themselves if they wanted to follow Jesus, to truly OWN their own faith. But we were too afraid to give Ryan that room when it came to his sexuality, for fear that he’d make the wrong choice.
And so, just before his 18th birthday, Ryan, depressed, suicidal, disillusioned and convinced that he would never be able to be loved by God, made a new choice. He decided to throw out his Bible and his faith at the same time, and to try searching for what he desperately wanted – peace – another way. And the way he chose to try first was drugs.
We had – unintentionally – taught Ryan to hate his sexuality. And since sexuality cannot be separated from the self, we had taught Ryan to hate himself. So as he began to use drugs, he did so with a recklessness and a lack of caution for his own safety that was alarming to everyone who knew him.
Suddenly our fear of Ryan someday having a boyfriend (a possibility that honestly terrified me) seemed trivial in contrast to our fear of Ryan’s death, especially in light of his recent rejection of Christianity, and his mounting anger at God.
Ryan started with weed and beer…but in six short months was using cocaine, crack and heroin. He was hooked from the beginning, and his self-loathing and rage at God only fueled his addiction. Shortly after, we lost contact with him. For the next year and a half we didn’t know where he was, or even if he was dead or alive. And during that horrific time, God had our full attention. We stopped praying for Ryan to become straight. We started praying for him to know that God loved him. We stopped praying for him never to have a boyfriend. We started praying that someday he’d come back to Jesus. We even stopped praying for him to come home to us…we only wanted him to come home to God.
By the time our son called us, after 18 long months of silence, God had completely changed our perspective. Because Ryan had done some pretty terrible things while using drugs, the first thing he asked me was this:
Do you think you can ever forgive me? (I told him of course, he was already forgiven. He had ALWAYS been forgiven.)
Do you think you could ever love me again? (I told him that we had never stopped loving him, not for one second. We loved him then more than we had ever loved him.)
Do you think you could even love me with a boyfriend? (Crying, I told him that we could love him with fifteen boyfriends. We just wanted him back in our lives. We just wanted to have a relationship with him again…AND with his boyfriend.)
And a new journey was begun. One of healing, restoration, open communication and grace. LOTS of grace. And God was present every step of the way, leading and guiding us, gently reminding us simply to love our son, and leave the rest up to Him.
Over the next ten months, we learned to love our son. Period. No buts. No conditions. Just because he breathes. We learned to love whoever our son loved. And it was easy. What I had been so afraid of became a blessing. The journey wasn’t without mistakes, but we had grace for each other, and the language of apology and forgiveness became a natural part of our relationship. As our son pursued recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, we pursued him. God taught us how to love him, to rejoice over him, to be proud of the man he was becoming. We were all healing…and most importantly, Ryan began to think that if WE could forgive him and love him, then maybe God could, too.
And then Ryan made the classic mistake of a recovering addict…he got back together with his old friends…his using friends. And one evening that was supposed to simply be a night at the movies turned out to be the first time he had shot up in ten months…and the last time. Ryan died on July 16, 2009. And we lost the ability to love our gay son…because we no longer had a gay son. What we had wished for…prayed for…hoped for…that we would NOT have a gay son, came true. But not at all in the way we used to envision.
Now, when I think back on the fear that governed all my reactions during those first six years after Ryan told us he was gay, I cringe as I realize how foolish I was. I was afraid of all the wrong things. And I grieve, not only for my oldest son, who I will miss every day for the rest of my life, but for the mistakes I made. I grieve for what could have been, had we been walking by FAITH instead of by FEAR. Now, whenever Rob and I join our gay friends for an evening, I think about how much I would love to be visiting with Ryan and his partner over dinner. But instead, we visit Ryan’s gravestone. We celebrate anniversaries: the would-have-been birthdays and the unforgettable day of his death. We wear orange – his color. We hoard memories: pictures, clothing he wore, handwritten notes, lists of things he loved, tokens of his passions, recollections of the funny songs he invented, his Curious George and baseball blankey, anything, really, that reminds us of our beautiful boy…for that is all we have left, and there will be no new memories.  We rejoice in our adult children, and in our growing family as they marry…but ache for the one of our “gang of four” who is missing. We mark life by the days BC (before coma) and AD (after death), because we are different people now; our life was irrevocably changed – in a million ways – by his death. We treasure friendships with others who “get it”…because they, too, have lost a child.
We weep. We seek Heaven for grace and mercy and redemption as we try – not to get better but to be better. And we pray that God can somehow use our story to help other parents learn to truly love their children. Just because they breathe.
Linda Diane Robertson
robertson.family@frontier.com
Written on December 5th, 2012
Posted on January 14, 2013 – Ryan’s would-have-been-24 birthday

Watch this: NASA Johnson Space Center "It Gets Better video

NASA is an amazing agency to work for - the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas produced this amazing video: NASA's version of "It Gets Better" on YouTube
Makes me proud to be  part of it.
The NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) "It Gets Better video" is a video project created by the "Out & Allied @ JSC Employee Resource Group" of NASA's Johnson Space Center. It was created as an outreach tool primarily directed at high school and college-aged lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) individuals who are victims of bullying and/or have been affected by bullying. This video sends the message to current and future NASA employees that it is OK to be LGBTQ, and that NASA JSC management supports and encourages an inclusive, diverse workforce in our workplace.

Mutts and Merlot with Whitney and Mike

Mike, Whitney, Chance and Schatzi

Sunday was a doggone great day, literally. Our friends Whitney and Mike (whom adopted our former foster dog, Chance the Weimaraner) asked us to meet them at the Hauser's Winery near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for a "Mutts and Merlot" dog event. So, we asked our friends and neighbors Will and Cristina to watch our senior dachshund Sprite (he couldn't handle walking around and the drive) and we drove to the event with Dolly, Franklin and Tyler.

Rob, Tom, Chance, Tyler- Franklin and Dolly (behind)

  There were many dog-related vendors there, and the thunderstorms held off during the day. We walked around, met lots of other dogs, including two women that were dachshund owners. One had 6 Dachshunds, the other had three. The woman with three dachshunds noticed that our little mini-dachshund "Tyler the Terror" was barking non-stop at all the other dogs, and she gave us a water bottle with a trigger to squirt at him whenever he mis-behaved. Over the course of an hour, it worked!!! Water training!!! What a really kind gesture to give us that squirt bottle and tell us about the training she uses.

Dolly and Franklin

Dachshund Crossing and Chance in the Middle!

  Chance looked incredible. It teared me (Rob) up to see how he's walking so well, and is so, so happy with his mom and dad and sister Schatzi (a mini-dachshund). Chance was the weimaraner that we rescued from a shelter and got him surgery to fix a dislocated back leg last summer.  All our kids got along well, and we enjoyed a BBQ lunch outside with a mountain view. A perfect afternoon.

Chance, Whitney, Schatzi, Tom, Tyler, Mike

  There were raffle tickets being sold to help the local county rescue, so I bought a bunch of them. I wound up winning about 13 dollars, so I bought 13 more tickets, only to win another $23.00- which I used to buy dog toys to benefit "blind dog rescue." I also had 3 tickets in for the "grand prize" of $100 but had to leave so I put my name and phone on them. They called me while we were enroute home and told me I won!  WOW.  So, I called Whitney and Mike and asked them to get it, and we split it to use on all of our canine kids. What a great day.

Chance, Whitney, Tom, Tyler, Mike

Chance and Schatzi

Jake's Graduation!

Rob, Jake and Tom

Heidi, Mike, Rob and Tom

My (Rob) godson Jake graduated from high school (I remember when he was born!) and his family threw him a huge cookout/party this weekend. Mike, Heidi and I have known each other since the 1990 when I first moved to Maryland. It's amazing to think how fast time flies.
 Anyway, the party was really wonderful, and there was enough food and variety for an army!  Jake and his friends played volleyball despite the 90F heat. Mike and Heidi prepared the immense feast and manned the grill. Callie ran a lot of errands, but sister Sadie couldn't make it (she's in Boston for school). Here are some fun pictures from the great event.

Tom and Rob

Being goofy as usual! :)

Jake and friends playing Volleyball

More partygoers!

Congrats Stacey and Nathan!

Today, our friends and neighbors Stacey and Nathan got married, and their dog Mopar was part of the ceremony. They're a wonderful couple who just radiate love. We are so excited for them, and know there's a wonderful life of happy memories in store. Congratulations!

 We had the opportunity to walk Mopar on the day before the festivities and Mopar told us that he's got the best Mom and Dad, ever. He said that he's so loved, and so spoiled and this was the family he dreamed about while he was waiting to be rescued. Lots of tail wags for this happy day! 
(RIGHT: Tom and Mopar during our evening walk!)

Funny U.K. Commercial for Free Eye Test

This hysterical video was a commercial written and filmed for the St. John's Eye Care Centre in the U.K. in 2006. This was a video advertising free eye tests for pensioners. The U.S. needs commercials like this!

We got a New Grill!

starting the assembly

I (Rob) have been wanting to get a grill for the backyard for a long time, and Tom agreed that it was time. So, we found a small,sleek looking propane grill at Lowes and spent an hour or two putting it together. I've cooked on it twice this week already and love it!

It's standing up!

Franklin (background) approves the new grill!