tess ❤️🤍

Mom of Boyz and Furbabies.
Proud to be called Grammy.
Buckeye-born but the PNW is my HOME.

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

@SheiiaTheRito @MAGAVoice Just perusing these replies, @Sheilatherito, and I think you're my new fave tweeter today.

And @Magavoice ~ sorry I used 3 unlawful pronouns.

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

@SheiiaTheRito @MAGAVoice ACKSHULLY... you used two. lmao!!!

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

@AW12T @lor66301 @essenviews First time I've heard Trump Devotional Syndrome. So fitting! I will be stealing and using as often as possible!

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

@bunsenbernerbmd Whew! I've been refreshing my feed so often today. I'm so glad they were able to save him. We all love that gentle giant!

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

@notquiteold I haven't been on Xitter much lately, and when I have been, I've seen LOTS of Henry and not much Theo, so I guessed the reason. This confirms it. He is missed. 🌈

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

@Teige15 @ProudPatriots1 He's a billionaire BECAUSE of their money.

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

@selflessjourney @TheDailyShow underrated tweet.

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

@notquiteold We did a paint & sip class and painted our dogs. I was thinking of you!! (even tho it was acrylics)

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

@Blessed11587260 @sabback @llano_selina @JoeBiden I was trying to make a joke. Missed the landing.

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

@sabback @llano_selina @JoeBiden From 1985. When shootings were few & far between. Children didn't have to do "active shooter drills". Churches, synagogues, stores, malls... All of those places were fairly safe in 1985.

He changed his stance over the past 40 years of major societal change. #NothingBurger

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

@Blessed11587260 @sabback @llano_selina @JoeBiden You must be doing it wrong!!!

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

@Candyp2262 @RealitySteve I'm 56 and seriously bummed.

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

@rcodyromero @lottyburns @pearlythingz came here to say that... 🤪

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

@hlodvir @ida_skibenes @HannnsUp 1. The "we" she was referring to was "we are having a conversation..." not "We live in the US."

2. Why can't someone live in one country and have an opinion about another?

3. Did you just actually tell her to "shut up and say hi to my grandpa"?!?!?

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

#WhenWillTheySay

[Dreamweasel @Dreamweasel]

#YouNeverHearMenSay

“I am an elected official in Florida and/or Texas, and I think we should trust women and gender-questioning people to privately consult their doctors and make their own decisions about their bodies!”

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

Thank you @dog_rates. Please done ever stop doing these videos! ❤️😍

[WeRateDogs @dog_rates]

Here are the Top 5 Dogs of the week!

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

So good!

[The Daily Show @TheDailyShow]

Finally, the Tucker Carlson on-air apology we've all been waiting for

[WeRateDogs @dog_rates]

This is Hubert. You're not going to believe what he found while playing today. Potentially one of his best discoveries to date. It was a puddle. 13/10

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

I sure hope Grey doesn't read this and get any ideas!!! #dogs

[Bunsen, Beaker, Bernoulli & Brix @bunsenbernerbmd]

Our Bernese Mountain Dog is a stoic, affectionate, goofy bear-thing.

He lives for the winter and the cool mountain air.

Shockingly something he did both ruined my birthday, made me look like a monster, and cost our family a big chunk of change.

Of course I immediately forgave him, but the story of WHAT HAPPENED is much more hilarious now than at the time it happened.

My birthday comes at the end of August and for as long as I can remember it was really bittersweet. As I blew out the candles each year it meant that summer was over and it was back to school, and then later back to work as a teacher.

Each year I try and do something in nature for my birthday.

My thought is, why sit around getting older when you can hike, kayak, or explore nature with dogs. Our summers are short enough, each day needs to count as winter could literally hit in September.

Our family was in the mountains with Bunsen and our chaotic Golden Retriever, Beaker. We had already hiked a canyon and mountain pass, along with spending an entire day paddle-boarding on an aquamarine mountain lake.

The last day on our mountain getaway would be my birthday and we planned to hike to Chester Lake.

It’s a hard hike and Adam (my son) and I had already done it with Bunsen and Beaker in the winter. The first hour is a pretty steep incline, but you are rewarded with a meadow surrounded by towering mountains. Adam and I hiked to the frozen lake, sat and ate our lunch, and watched the wind blow snow on the peaks. It was gorgeous.

I had chatted up another hiker who was up there by himself. The guy was decked out in amazing snow gear and sported a truly epic beard. Not only that, Bunsen and Beaker couldn’t get enough of this dude and Mountain Guy couldn’t get enough of them.

Perhaps Bunsen thought he was an actual bear and felt some kinship with him. Beaker needed no excuse. She would want to be friends with anyone, even an actual bear.

Mountain Guy made sure to tell us multiple times that we HAD to come back in the summer.

Needless to say, when a random mountain guy with an epic mountain beard tells you where you should go in the mountains, you probably should listen.

I convinced Kris to come with us. She wasn’t keen as the last big hike we went on was what she called “The Death Hike” up to the Ink Pots high above the gorgeous waterfalls of Johnston Canyon in Banff.

I thought the Ink Pots were worth it (naturally occurring DEEP emerald pools of water) but Kris didn’t think the extra 10km was worth it and told me repeated every step down.

At any rate I woke up excited for the day, carefully packed our day packs with snacks (gotta pack trail mix!), plenty of water for us and the dogs, and a delicious lunch of amazing bagel sandwiches.

Honestly, nothing tastes better than a fancy sandwich after reaching the “top” of a hike.

We loaded up the critters and humans into our minivan and got to the trailhead for a decent start time.

This is where everything went sideways.

The parking lot is a huge gravel rectangle, and despite us being there decently early, it was already getting busy. I counted at least 50 vehicles there and the lot was teeming with hikers.

Somehow a space was open directly beside the trailhead, perhaps left by a sunrise hiking group, so pulled into an amazing parking spot.

I sprung out of the van and started unloading our packs including Bunsen’s hiking backpack that he wears.

The dogs always exit last, once we have all our gear ready to go and double checked, and Beaker sprung out of her spot with a gusto for adventure.

Normally Bunsen is equally excited to escape to freedom, but he was very reluctant to hop out of the van.

After basically pulling him out (which in hindsight was odd) he hopped down and the dozen or so people taking pictures at the trailhead shouted with glee. Beaker is adorable, but Golden Retrievers are common, Bunsen is not so common and strikes a majestic pose. He’s kind of a magnet everywhere we go.

Now I thought after he hopped out he was walking funny, but I pushed it to the back of my mind as I tend to be a bit of a hypochondriac around the big guy. He broke his toe randomly as a puppy so we have always been hyper focused on his health.

As I was strapping his backpack on I caught wind of a definite mood change in the throng of hikers.

I lingered on the faces of a few as murmuring began and the happy expressions of seeing Bunsen were now expressions of concern or even disgust.

One guy looked at me and said, “Really?”

I was totally taken aback and assumed their disdain was for the dog-backpack that I was strapping to Bunsen.

We’ve had comments before that it’s cruel to put a dog in a backpack, but Bunsen is trained to wear one and our trainer says dogs should pack in their own food and snacks and pack out their poop.

I was ready to go into my TED talk on why Bunsen is totally capable of wearing a backpack when I noticed that he was limping.

I stopped what I was doing and Bunsen stopped walking. I called to Kris and led him over to her.

Yep. Bunsen was REALLY limping.

The throng of gathered hikers who didn’t know what we were doing assumed we were going to go on a fairly epic hike with a dog that had a serious limp.

ALSO they had just witnessed me strapping a big backpack onto the dog.

In their eyes we were terrible monsters.

I get why they thought I was an animal abuser, but at the time I was way more worried about Bunsen.

I took his backpack off and had him walk some more.

Limping.

Bad.

I carefully looked at his paw on the leg he was favouring for glass or anything really that would explain the limp. I couldn’t see anything wrong.

I looked at Kris and we both said simultaneously, “Bunsen can’t do the hike.”

We chatted quickly about what to do.

Adam and I could take Beaker on the hike and have Kris stay back with Bunsen. Kris advocated for this as it was my birthday, but the thought of leaving her at the trailhead for hours with a dog that had a serious and painful looking limp wasn’t a great idea.

As Bunsen moved his limp got worse and worse.

We decided to pack up and drive from the mountains home to an emergency vet clinic.

Only a minute had gone by while we pitched ideas and Bunsen’s limp got even worse.

I led him back to the van and the big guy barely made it.

He wouldn’t jump up into the van, so I had to lift him in.

I was now terrified.

Bunsen was seriously hurt.

We chucked everything back into the dog-mobile and turned to home.

Kris found a window of time for Bunsen’s normal vet to see him. The vet couldn’t guarantee more than a check up and possible X-rays, but we were concerned and sick with worry.

It was a long stressful drive back to our town, with all of us checking on Bunsen every five minutes.

Bunsen had laid down on the floor of the van and promptly fell asleep.

As I definitely broke the speed limit on the way home, we made excellent time and hit the window the vet could see Bunsen.

I opened up the sliding door, fully prepared to lift Bunsen out and carry him as I assumed his injury would have gotten worse during the car ride.

To our surprise Bunsen happily woke up, wagged his tail and leaped out the van.

I remember saying stupidly “Maybe it healed during the trip”

This, of course, is idiotic and ridiculous.

Without a care or worry, Bunsen padded happily into the vet clinic, proudly stepped on the scale and gleefully walked into the waiting room.

The Vet examined his paw, moving it forward and back, pressing it hard and doing other vet things.

Bunsen just smiled and with great gusto took the cookie the vet gave him.

The vet looked at us and said, “There is nothing wrong with him.”

I couldn’t believe it and I said so.

Obviously telling a vet that you know more than him is idiotic and ridiculous.

He said that they could do X-rays just to make sure, but he was confident that there was nothing wrong with Bunsen.

We did the X-rays.

There was nothing wrong with Bunsen.

The vet concluded that Bunsen probably faked the injury. The vet said that Bunsen “could” have landed funny or on a very pokey rock but realistically, Bunsen just didn’t want to go on the hike.

I was flabbergasted.

Our big, brave, loyal, bear guardian dog just decided that he had enough hiking and pretended to be injured to get out of work.

Somehow he KNEW what an terrible injury looked like and made it get WORSE AND WORSE the longer we lingered at the trailhead.

I asked him why he did what he did. He just smiled at me.

By the time we got home it was late, we were exhausted, and my wallet was a few hundred dollars lighter.

Since Bunsen had slept the whole time, he was fresh as morning dew and was bugging me to go outside.

I took him for a short walk to do a number 2, wistfully looking at the mountains far in the distance as the sun set on my birthday.

I looked at my Oscar winning dog-actor and told him I loved him.

He just smiled.

Yeah, it was a pretty good birthday after all.

#dogs

[tess ❤️🤍 @robinsontess]

Yes. Why?

[PoliticsGirl @IAmPoliticsGirl]

Republican voters: Does your party still represent your values? Is what they’re doing truly what you want?