Today was our annual "Blessing of the animals" service at church. It was mostly dogs...maybe about 30/more of them, and a couple of cats, and I think I saw a gecko. Pretty cool, though.
I took Cookie on a good walk before the service, just to get all her heeby-jeebies out of her system. I wasn't sure she was going to do very well, what with all the people (who would be STANDING part of the time, for goodness sake...and Cookie hates it when people are 'towering' over her) and all the other dogs around. But she was the very picture of good behavior. She mostly sat under our pew (safer there) and was so confused by the mass of people/dogs walking around and greeting each other during the passing of the Peace that she let people pet her!!!
She got a blessing after the service and did a lot of mingling (read: sniffing other dogs), and was much too excited to even nibble on all the doggie treats thereabouts. A real Red Letter Day for our Cookie, I'd say.
Note: The last remark made me wonder where the term, red letter day, came from. Here is the answer, via Wikipedia:
A red letter day (sometimes hyphenated as red-letter day) is any day of special significance.
The term originates from Medieval church calendars. Illuminated manuscripts often marked initial capitals and highlighted words in red ink, known as rubrics. The First Council of Nicaea in 325 decreed the saint's days, feasts and other holy days, which came to be printed on church calendars in red. The term came into wider usage with the appearance in 1549 of the first Book of Common Prayer in which the calendar showed special holy days in red ink.
Many current calendars have special dates and holidays such as Sundays, Christmas Day and Midsummer Day rendered in red colour instead of black.
On red letter days, judges of the English High Court (Queen's Bench Division) wear, at sittings of the Court of Law, their scarlet robes (See court dress). Also in the United Kingdom, other civil dates have been added to the original religious dates. These include anniversaries of the Monarch's birthday, official birthday, accession and coronation.
Glad that you had a red letter day with Cookie. I always keep an eye out for animal blessings and it looks like you had a great turn out at yours. I hope you'll stop by my blog and check it out...at the moment I am chatting about Bark Mitzvahs!
Posted by: Diana Guerrero | Tuesday, July 17, 2007 at 02:57 PM
As for the dogs and the carpet, everyone was asked that their dogs had been 'taken out'. I don't think there was an accident, thank goodness.
Yes, I have seen Harry Potter. We saw it on Saturday night and I really enjoyed it. It made me want to fly over London, at night, on a broom.
Posted by: violetismycolor | Monday, July 16, 2007 at 09:25 PM
That was my question. How do they handle that many dogs in regards to the carpet?
Posted by: Inkling | Monday, July 16, 2007 at 09:12 PM
She must've known there would be a blessing in it for her if she was good. :) Interesting history of that term.
Posted by: Barbara W. Klaser | Monday, July 16, 2007 at 07:22 PM
I'd be nervous about taking the wiener dogs anywhere like that. Peanut is extremely shy and would likely freak out. Bailey would want to investigate EVERYTHING (and probably bark a lot). Plus, I don't trust their potty training abilities (or lack thereof...) I've avoided anything like "Take Your Dog To Work Day" for those very reasons, but it's a shame because their company would be fun (if I didn't actually have to do any work).
Posted by: Tonya | Monday, July 16, 2007 at 07:19 PM
Good girl, Cookie!
Thanks for the info - interesting facts.
Did you see Harry Potter yet?
Posted by: tinker | Monday, July 16, 2007 at 02:42 PM
I LOVE word origins; they fascinate me. That expression makes a lot of sense now! Good job, Cookie. I would be a bit nervous taking either one of our cats to any kind of public place. They are feisty.
Posted by: Margaret | Sunday, July 15, 2007 at 06:21 PM