Cathy Raborn met her two dogs, Sam and Petunia, at a veterinaryclinic where she works. Sam was found chained to a post with nofood and no water and nearly died. Petunia was sick and about to beput to sleep.
Raborn and her husband took the two animals under their wing andraised them in their home.
Sunday evening, instead of starving or ailing, Sam and Petuniawere at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church for the annual Blessing of theAnimals.
The ceremony included Scripture readings, a group blessing, andindividual blessings for the dogs, cats, rabbit, bird and hamsterin attendance.
“I feel like I should be blessed,” Raborn said. “I couldn’t haveasked for better pets.”
Raborn said this is the first year she has attended theservice.
“They’re two new, relatively young pets,” Raborn said. “So wefigured we’d better start ’em out right!”
She said all creatures, no matter their size, deserve to beblessed.
Ten-year-old Eric Robideau brought his hamster, Lucky, to theservice.
Robideau said he found Lucky running around in the parking lotof his apartment complex, which is why he named him Lucky.
“He’s getting kind of old, so I brought him here to make sure hewould be all right,” he said.
Jason Bowers, a choral conducting graduate student, brought hisbeagle, Toby, to the ceremony.
“It’s neat to be able to include your pets in something that’ssuch a big part of your life like church,” Bowers said. “And itgives Toby a chance to meet other dogs.”
Angie Grundestad, a second year vocal performance graduatestudent, said her dog, Ella, really enjoyed the service.
“I adopted her from PetSmart last year and she’s so great,”Grundestad said. “She never stops giving love, so I wanted to givesomething back to her.”
Renee Tadie and her daughter Elizabeth brought their dog, DaisyFaye, and rabbit, Mamou, to the ceremony.
“The animals are very special to us because we got both of thema year ago when I lost my husband,” Tadie said. “The service iswonderful and I love bringing the animals here.”
Sheila Smith said she and her Boston Terrier, Lucky, enjoyed theservice also.
“I like meeting other people’s pets,” Smith said. “You learnmore about people through them.”
Seven-year-old David Rollins was a bystander at theceremony.
“I liked it a lot because I really like animals,” Rollins said.”My favorites were the parrot and the rabbit because they aredifferent types of animals to have for pets.”
Drew Rollins, chaplain at the church, said he really enjoysperforming the service.
“There’s an element of chaos that’s so exciting about it,”Rollins said. “It really shows how much people love theirpets.”