All Dogs Go to Heaven, The 79th Annual Blessing of the Animals

It wasn’t the Easter Bunny leaving little surprises all around Los Angeles’ historic Olvera Street Saturday.  It was the hundreds of pets turning out for the 79th annual Blessing of the Animals conducted by Archbishop Mahoney himself.  While the current shindig’s more civic celebration than religious, it does have a mixed ecclesiastic pedigree reaching beyond St. Francis’ chit-chatting with birds back to San Antonio de Abad’s special relationship with swine.  Antonio is also patron of amputees, butchers, gravediggers, eczema, epilepsy, scabies, and leprosy.  Happy Easter, kids!

photos by Al Ridenour