By Michael Francis Gore
MADRID (Reuters) - Dozens of dogs and cats, a few parrots and a chicken queued up alongside their owners outside a church in Madrid on Friday, waiting their turn to be blessed by a Catholic priest in a popular annual ritual.
In Spain, the feast day of Saint Anthony the Abbot celebrates pets, as the third-century Egyptian hermit is venerated as a patron saint of animals.
According to legend, he performed numerous miracles involving animals, such as restoring sight to blind boarlets.
On the steps of the baroque Church of St Anthony, 87-year-old priest Angel Garcia sprinkled holy water on the creatures, wishing them good health as well as happiness for their owners. Some parishioners held up pictures of their pets on phone screens to be blessed.
Milagros Hernandez, 53, said she felt very pleased when her dog Yako received the blessing, adding that "it may look like a silly thing to do - but it's not".
Chris Ludlow, an English-language teacher from Toronto who lives in Spain, told Reuters the "fantastic" tradition showed "why people really think of animals as their family and not just pets".