Pets Go to School for Blessing of Animals

As eighth-grader Jennifer Sherman read verses Tuesday morning relating the biblical account of creation, creatures great and small barked, squawked and wriggled on the quadrangle at Chaminade College Preparatory Middle School.

The menagerie of pets, including a rat named Al and a parrot named Sadie, along with their owners and about 600 students gathered for the Catholic school’s annual Blessing of the Animals.

The informal outdoor rites are celebrated by many Catholic and Episcopal churches in October to honor the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and nature.

“We have a very diverse student body here,” said Candy Wallace, the school’s public relations manager. “Not all of the students are Catholic, but we invite everyone to participate in Catholic ceremonies and Masses.”

Dalmatians, retrievers, desert tortoises, chameleons, hamsters and guinea pigs, among other pets, were prayed over and sprinkled with holy water by Father Edwin Johnson, a Marianist priest and the campus pastor.

Christina Zdenek, a seventh-grader, said she brought her pet chameleon, a male, to the prayer service to receive a special blessing.

“I have another [female] chameleon at home. I’m mating them and I want them to have the best of luck,” she said.

Christina’s female chameleon has already produced 54 babies.