Holy pets, Batman!

Today was the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals. In honor of the day, the kids' school held a pet blessing just before dismissal. Robbie was beside himself with excitement that Gabby could come to school -- well, at least to the parking lot of the school.

So despite day three of my monumental and hormonal headache, I put the dog in the car and headed down for what might have been her first religious experience (aren't I a good mom?!). This is the two of us in the car:

There were several dogs already there when we arrived. Most everyone was behaving nicely on their leashes. However, one friend of mine was crazy enough to bring their three BIG black labs (if I'm a good mom, she's a stellar mom) who thought nothing of using their combined weight to bring her to her knees and eventually belly down in the grass. I noticed by the time the blessing actually got underway, she was down to one dog.

When the classes came outside, Robbie found Gabby and me rather quickly and sat with us for the blessing, though I don't know if Gabs considered Robbie's presence a blessing:

Soon, Charlie joined us, too. Annie said hello but opted to stand with her friends, who for the record, thought that Gabby was adorable. Once everyone was gathered, Fr. Jeremy, the associate pastor, began the blessing ceremony. I wondered if this job traditionally goes to the second priest on the totem pole? 

A few prayers, a reading from Genesis, some outstretched hands, a light sprinkle of holy water and we had ourselves a blessed bagle hound. 

If only those few words and that little bit of holy water could work some magic on the whole chewing and housebreaking thing...unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. 

The majority of pets at the blessing were dogs, though I did see one dad holding a box of guinea pigs and Fr. Jeremy said there were a couple of cats in carriers. And Robbie's teacher put their class pet -- a catfish named Whiskers -- in a bucket so he (she?) could be blessed, too.