Would you take your pets to a church congregatrion?

[Jazzicatz]

My parents have just taken their dog and 5 cats to church to be blessed. Would you take yours?

[chuckeyegg]

I went to an animal blessing service and it was superb. I think most people just had one pet. :)

[oxocube]

Erm, even as a very enthusiastic Christian ................ no

Can I just ask why they felt the need? Am trying to imagine my 2 cats and rather unruly dog in church

[Jazzicatz]

I really don't know why! I just sniggered when they told me!

[GetOrf]

How funny! 5 cats in church. How chaotic that must have been.

[alegre]

In Spain it's quite traditional in some areas to take pets to church for a blessing on the feast of St. Anthony, the patron saint of pets (in January).

When I lived in Spain I used to take my dog and it was quite fun. We did a little pilgramage walk and then meet at the church for a blessing. People would take all sorts of pets - canaries, cats, hamsters etc etc. It could get a little noisy but that just added to the fun.

Here are a couple of links:

observers.france24.com/content/20110119-spain-pet-blessing-cats-and-dogs-head-to-church-saint-anthony-day

www.nfo.ac.uk/collections/records/0017-0004-0473-0000-0-0000-0000-0.html

[alegre]

Doh - typo!
'pilgrimage' of course!

[nickelbabe]

it is funny.

I would take my pets to a pet service, but not specifically to get them blessed


(DH once took his cats to church, but it was because he had to go to the vets with them after the service, so he had no choice!)

[oxocube]

Wow! Its all I can do to get my kids there sometimes, never mind the animals

Alegre, I would have thought that cats, canaries and hamsters in the same building at the same time is an accident waiting to happen (speaks as one whose hamster was eaten by the cats a few years back)

[alegre]

Hee, hee .

It got a little chaotic oxocube but, where I was, dogs were kept on leads, cats in cat boxes, hamsters in cages etc so there was no danger of one animal being eaten or attacked by another.