Today (October 4) is the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. Many churches, including Good Shepherd, offer a blessig of animals on the Sunday near Saint Francis Day. This Sunday, October 7, a 5PM, we will bless animals at Good Shepherd.
We will gather in front of the church at 5:00 PM for a brief prayer service that concludes with the blessing of animals. Feel free to bring your pets to have them blessed. If it is raining, we will do a drive-by blessing: you and Fluffy stay in the car, and I will offer the blessing under the cover of my umbrella.
Saint Francis was more than just a guy who liked animals. If you are going to have your animal blessed in honor of Saint Francis, then it might be a good idea to learn a bit about Francis. This online resource at www.newadvent.org is quite thorough in its biography of Saint Francis: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06221a.htm