Unearthing a life.....

This Sunday past, the Kitsap Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship conducted its first ever (as far as I know) Blessing of the Animals. Bookworm decided that grandson Allie should bring his beloved kitty 'Pumpkin' to the fledgling event. To this end, she bought a collar and leash for the cat and pledged that she would 'build' a cat carrier to convey 'Pumpkin' to his/her momentous meeting with the Unitarians. In the couse of nailing down the arrangements for Sunday morning, I mentioned this building project to Allie's other grandmother.

Saturday afternoon Bookworm and I motored to the outback of Port Orchard to lunch at the Victorian Rose Tea Room. During the drive, she began verbalizing some of her carrying cage construction plans .... something to do with towels(?). Over the span of a lifetime, I have had several occasions that required containment of a cat. I was seldom successful. So visions of Pumpkin loose in the Fellowship Hall ... possibly pursued by ferocious canids .... led me to propose that I buy a cheap carrying cage. Bookworm seemed happy to be off the hook -- and on the way home from lunch we stopped at PetCo and bought a nice carrying cage.

Later that afternoon Bookworm called the other grandmother to finalize something or other and LO!, 'other grandmother' had also gone to PetCo and bought the exact same carrying cage.

Come Sunday morning we met Allie and his Mom at the Fellowship for the 11:15 service. Turned out Al was the only kid at that service ... and Pumpkin was the only cat -- in the company of a baker's half dozen or so dogs. The service was sparsely attended by other than the pet owners present ... which was a bit of a downer. [NoApologies, your folks were there.]

All in all, I enjoyed the event (and the 'singing' of one of the dogs). Allie paraded his cat up for the blessing and he and Bookworm went forward to say a few words in memory of our old dog Dakota.

My favorite moment came when the lay leader asked if there were any guests present who would like to introduce themselves and Allie bounced to his feet, faced the congregation, and - with a gesture towards her - announced "My Mom!" I really appreciate that he is aware of the procedures and at ease with taking the responsibility on himself to see that she was introduced.

We do have to speak to him about not trying to start two-way conversations with the Minister while she's in the middle of her sermon.