Menoturals; Pet Blessings

Lacking any new shots of my own and, frankly, a little bored of trawling my archives over and over for Menoturals posts, I am now using some interesting images found elsewhere (with appropriate attribution, of course!). What caught my eye this week?

Hands up if you knew about Saint Anthony the Egyptian (aka Abed/Abbot/et al)? Interesting bloke when you start reading up on him. Anyhoo, among other facts, it was revealed to me this week that his feast day is January 17th and that he is the patron saint of domestic animals. Well, one of them; we all know about St Francis of Assisi, but there are also the saints Anthony of Padua, Cornelius and Roch, who are associated with animal care.

Anyhoo, in many Catholic countries, there are celebrations of the family pet and blessings made upon them on this feast day. Luckily, there were a lot of photographs from this week's blessings held in Mexico. I share one with you, which shows that not all pets appreciate the blessing... and then direct you to THIS LINK to see all the other equally joyful depictions.

It's begging for a caption, don't you think???

And it only remains to remind you that next week is the first Final Friday of the year - have you something to offer as a little extra special to share with us on that day? Have a think about it. If you are relatively new around here, you can read the purpose and 'how to' on the FFF Rulez page on the tab up top.