Sunday, October 04, 2009

Dog Church

We didn't have church today; twice a year we have what's called "General Conference" where the entire church watches a broadcast via satelite or Internet given by the general leaders of the church. Because of the time difference, it doesn't start for us until 1:00 in the afternoon, so we took advantage of the morning and went out to the Lagoa, a lagoon a block away from our house, to check things out. Since we were all going together I decided to chance it and take the good camera; I figured the large group of us might deter someone from ripping it off my neck as they rode by on a bike. I got lucky and am still in posession of the camera (and my neck).

The big kids rode their bikes which was slightly traumtic for Juan Carlos who just learned to ride this past summer. You can see how many people were out and about:

As far as I know, as a group we only caused 1 near accident. Not bad.

As we approached the dog park, we noticed a lot of commotion and we figured it was some kind of dog competion. We pulled over to check it out:


Lots of dogs. Lots of people. They all seemed to be in a line waiting for something.

Turns out it was a religious service for animals, with what appeared to be a priest and everything (everything including a guy with a blue dog ears hat and a microphone):


"Blessing of the Animals":



While the priest individually blessed each dog, the blue-eared man was screaming into a microphone about why we should buy a particular brand of flea medication. Over and over and over.

It was all very interesting.

Have I ever mentioned how much the people around here love their dogs (ummm....obviously)? There are dogs everywhere. And not just any dogs. Lots of purebreads. Not a lot of mutts in these parts.



They get to drink cocounut water straight from the coconut after their walks:

Here's a couple walking 4 of some kind of Yorkie. We thought her tatoo on the back of her calf was also a Yorkie which would make her some kind of serious Yorkie freak, but unfortunately, it was just a scary looking cat (click the photo if you'd like to see for yourself).



These little whippets are all over the place. They always cause me a little bit of menal grief because every time I see one, the first thought I have is about how easily I could snap their little legs in two. I have never and would never hurt an animal, so this always bugs me. There's just something about those little teeny legs...:


We finished with the dog services and headed over to the dock where we feed the fish all of our old bread:



Today there was this cool bird their fishing for our fish. He (or she) had quite a lunch catching the fish that were gathered to eat our bread.












On the way home we saw a little pick-up baseball game:




...and really good water skier:





and then the kids climbed their favorite branches:


I hope your your weekend was wonderful. :)

11 comments:

Head Nurse or Patient- you be the judge said...

We were blessed with a downpour before and after conference this morning- and then we had hail after the afternoon session. I was glad I wasn't outside at the Conf. Center in the rain and instead at home in my pj's-

Kari said...

What a fun morning--and I am VERY glad you braved the outing and took your camera. Blessing the dogs. Hmmm. I'm glad you didn't take any photos of chihuahuas (sp?). They are so rat-like and frail-looking...I think THOSE dogs are going to break if you look at them wrong.

andalucy said...

It was fun to see these pictures--I'm glad you risked taking the camera too. How funny about the dogs, and the costumed flea-medication promoter.

That tree looks like climbing heaven!

Awesome Mom said...

They had a blessing of the animals event here too, so I don't think it is just a Brazil thing but a Catholic thing.

Ballerina Girl said...

Geez, you should have called me and I could have gotten Bella blessed! Yes, St. Francis of Assissi is the patron Saint of Animals.
Yes, mine is a purebreed.
Yes, mine drinks coconut water (but I don't buy it, only if there is someone else finished with theirs or one laying around!)
Yes, I LOVE my girl! hahaha

Great fotos, and sounds like fun...
BG

Janet said...

Great pictures! I'm nervous to take my camera places. Every time I do, at least one person tells me "nice camera" so then I'm positive their going to steal it.

Lynne said...

I love the dog service! That is the funniest thing ever.

Fabiola said...

The kids must have had a blessed day.
As BG said, it is the Saint Francis blessing. It is a Catholic thing.
We had the animal blessing at out church too. It was huge. Since I am not an animal person, I (we) went to the noon service, which was a normal service : )

Fabiola

Betty W said...

Sounds and looks like a fun family outing! I´ve never seen an animal blessing before! Not sure what to think about that....

Jeanie said...

They did a St. Francis of Assisi thing here too...people took all kinds of animals, even a llama. Your pictures were great.

Jason said...

Hi nicee reading your post