Fredo was ticked to be blessed

Last Friday was the Blessing of the Animals at Christ the King. It's an annual event. Naturally, Audrey was dying for us to take Fredo. So we did.

I dropped of Auddie at school and waited in the parking lot for the blessing to start. Michael and Nina were bringing up the rear, with Fredo in tow. It's difficult to fully appreciate the scene of the blessing unless you've been to it. People bring horse trailers full of horses, ponies, dogs of all sizes, cats of all colors, goldfish, and stuffed animals. And the entire school is in an organized circle, with the animals.

So here's Fredo - a cool cat, for sure -- stuffed into a toy couture dog carrier that's soft-sided, features a small, mesh window, and is covered in shiny pink material. We got more comments on the carrier than we did the beautifully pissed cat inside of it.

Overall, though, I thought the blessing went really well. Fredo didn't hiss, nor did he try to swipe the noses of kindergartners who wanted to see him in his glitzy bag. I offered to take him home while Michael and Nina stayed to marvel at the other animals. And this was my first mistake.

I enjoy having Fredo in the car - it's like Mommy and Me time. He likes to sit on my lap after crawling all over the car, always careful to avoid the screaming banchee children who are usually riding in the back. Today, though, he and I enjoyed the relatively silent trip home. But then I started to gag.

Fredo's tummy was apparently a bit upset by the morning's events. He'd let a little SHART on the collar of my sweatshirt. Now, picture the proximity of the dot of poo to my nose. Picturing it? Yep, smells nice, doesn't it? Make you queasy? Yep, it should. I was. And I swore I smelled like crap all day long, even after I shed the sweatshirt.

But, the good news is that Fredo's blessed...in more ways than one.