Oct. 4: Feast of St. Francis Vigil to Bless the Animals at Burnside

Well, it's been a while since my last post, and I apologize. Still recovering from last week, which was quite a whopper. Seems like this week is more of the same - a series of troubling discoveries, mos tof which are better left unmentioned. And my laptop, with all its stored emails, documents, notes, is still in repairs. I hope I see it again someday. My car stereo broke completely on the day of the downtown march. I don't want to complain though, I'm just glad my 15 year-old Chrysler still works, knock on fake wood!

The most important thing to say up front is, as I am a big fan of St. Francis, patron saint of animals and the environment (and, incidentally, a restorer of churches) I want to hold a silent candlelight vigil on his feast day this Saturday, for Brindi as well as all of the precious animals held in the Burnside pound and the shelter. In the Catholic tradition, all animals receive special blessings on St. Francis' feast day.

The vigil will be a time to come together and pray, meditate, or simply think good thoughts about the animals, depending on our individual persuasions. It all amounts to blessings. The vigil will start at 7 pm, eleven minutes after sunset, and go for about an hour. Everybody welcome, on two and four legs, or any combination thereof.

On Monday, I sent another request to Animal Services for permission to see Brindi. Two weeks ago, after sending three letters in a row, I got a written refusal. There is no law or written policy banning it, and I suppose I could file a request for a court order to visit her, but the cost of the rest of the legal action is already so high. I just paid a healthy sum and am about to do so again, as the work continues. Whatever the Brindi Defense Fund amounts to will certainly be a help, but at the moment, I fear, it lags well behind the running total of expenses (about... a tenth, I would say?). I am optimistic about it, however!

I just figured out today is Wednesday...! Missed my Tuesday yoga class! And I should mention that the Tuesday city hall "Meet and Treat" events dropped off a bit, but will resume. On a brighter note, my councilor, David Hendsbee, was kind enough to present our online petitions to the session last week. The minutes have not been published yet.

I noticed a good column in the Community Herald by Angela Monbourquette reviewing municipal election issues. She did include the by-law, but only in terms of cats - sections calling for tags and leashes that were deleted in June. The remaining issues of A300 ought to be considered as well, it seems to me. I hope she'll think about it.

In August, there was a wonderful posting about Brindi at For the Love of the Dog - They are "Man's Best Friend" - Are We Theirs?" Today, the blog's compassionate owner, Deanna, who lives in Wisconsin kindly did an update. Thank you, Deanna! On, Wisconsin!