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As I write this, my two rescue dogs lazily glance at me from their respective pillows on my living room couch. “Stanley” is a mix of at least four different breeds (mostly Schnauzer is our best guess) and “Henry” is a Chihuahua/Maltese hybrid of some sort and to list his shortcomings would take a whole separate article – let’s just say he’s bitten everyone from a FedEx worker to our wedding photographer and no matter how many times we brush his teeth, his breath is so bad I often have to banish him to the end of our king-sized bed. But here’s the thing: my two mutts are the most loveable and quirky animals I’ve ever met and you can see the gratitude in their eyes. My husband and I are well aware that if we hadn’t adopted them, they wouldn’t be here today. And now that my daughter is two, I am so happy that our furry family members (and their adoption stories) will help to teach her about charity, compassion and all those other wonderful character qualities.

I had the honor of being included in a preview and roundtable discussion of the CBS News/48 Hours special “Bullying: Words Can Kill” at CBS studios today. The special, to be broadcast Friday, September 16 at 8pm EST, bears its provocative title for a reason: the terrible statistic of more than 150 children in recent years having taken their own lives due to having been bullied. Despite this tragic number and the unsettling content of the show, the 48 Hours special is not gloom and doom—showcasing a Rhode Island middle school that has taken strong measures to address their bullying problem with a great deal of success.

Photo of the week: Brendan Fraser came to the hospital to premier his new movie, Furry Vengeance with the kids at the Cornell pediatrics unit. He actually sat through the whole thing with them, which was really quite an act of charity considering how sick he must be of seeing his butt getting kicked by animals over and over...and over...again. Good man!

Here's what you might have missed on the blog this week:

There's so much going on we thought it might be helpful to provide a quick weekly round-up of all the things we've posted and what's hot to make it easier to follow along. If this is helpful, let us know.

This week's photo: A sign on a dirt road in Vermont that our GPS had led us down. I guess somebody was sick of lost tourists driving up to their house.