All creatures great and small

Blessing of The Animals

In Observance of the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, there will be a brief Blessing of The Animals this afternoon, October 3 at 5:00pm in the church parking lot. Bring your family pet to receive this special blessing commemorating St. Francis’ great love for all creation


It should have read “5:00 p.m.! Not one second later., don’t even think we’re going to wait around in the lot for you! We have things to do too, you know, don’t doddle! and I also think that the “brief” part should have been underlined and in bold face. They weren’t kidding. I pulled up at 4:59 and they had all ready started. I had no idea the animals and I were supposed to have booked ahead and signed up for line placement and wrist bands. I tried to be nice and not parade my dog through a wedding and I got the evil eye from the priest. Thanks Father. I almost missed having Kitty blessed because I didn’t think I could get both dog on her leash and the kitty in his wheelly crate across the street. Hannibal couldn’t have done it - elephants through the Alps? Not that big a deal, dog and cat across a busy intersection while a wedding party was trying to leave the church? Not going to happen. I had to go around, first with Dogger and then after, at light speed with Kitty. Don’t think he didn’t love that part.

Dogger was easy. I stood there, Father asked her name, splashed her with some holy water and blessed her and moved on to the next dog. The crowd said a prayer, dispersed and the priests tried to back to their football game all ready in progress.

“Hey wait!” I said. “I have a cat out in my car!” and he needs you guys!. “Fiiinnnneee. Damn. Get him, where are you parked? I know they were trying to get back before half time, but really! I tore back to the car with a very excited Dogger and fetched a very not excited Kitty. I got back to an almost empty parking lot. It was me and a couple of other “late comers”. It was now five after five.

Kitty got barked at by a puppy. The priest said “Be careful there we don’t want to do a funeral too!”. Thanks Father. Kitty got his blessing and I took the animals home.

Dogger now wants me to go get her The St. Francis version of the bible and a copy of Left Behind ( in the crate). Kitty bit me after I let him out of his box. He got his though. I let him celebrate his new, some what blessed state by letting him into the back yard . He was out there for about ten minutes and it started to rain. God wanted Kitty to be fully immersed.

Two canvasses down, 30 something days to go

This weekends canvass went much better than last weeks death march. This time we only had 33 doors to knock on, unlike last weeks 100+. We were finished by 2pm and I could still walk. And ya! We found four whole voters! Woo-hoo!. This time after we were finished I didn’t want to die or kill anyone. I’m going to do it next week too. You should check and make sure what your states ballot looks like. In North Carolina if you vote a straight ticket you are not also voting for the president. You have to vote for the president separately. And also, a straight ticket vote does not include races that are non-partison. Find out how your ballot works and what it is going to look like before you vote.