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Pets Receive A Gift

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By VALERIE KALFRIN vkalfrin@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 5, 2008

TAMPA - Beneath a shady tree, the Rev. Len Piotrowski on Saturday intoned about the pairs of animals saved in Noah's ark and other creatures great and small.

His audience whimpered, tugged at leashes, pawed the ground and nestled in carriers or owners' arms.

To celebrate the Catholic feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and ecology, the Humane Society of Tampa Bay invited Piotrowski to bless the shelter animals at 3607 N. Armenia Ave. and any visiting pets.

Piotrowski, pastor of St. Paul's Catholic Church and owner of a beagle and two parrots, was glad to oblige.

He said he blessed about 75 dogs, cats and birds at his church Saturday morning.

"The Earth and the animals are a great gift from God," the priest said.

Over the years, Piotrowski said he has blessed horses, doves, snakes, turtles, frogs, "a fancy chicken" and now hedgehogs.

An Oldsmar couple from Sir Snuffy's Hedgehog Sanctuary brought two of the spiny creatures Saturday, fascinating a Great Dane named Lilo and a Husky named Sadie.

"She's an escape artist," Sadie's owner, Debbie Monteiro, 38, said of the bell on Sadie's collar.

Monteiro, her boyfriend and Sadie's "foster parent," John Hale, 51, who lets the dog run in his yard, brought Sadie to be blessed "to keep her safe and protect her."

That sentiment inspired stepsisters Tatiana Neblett and Jackie Roche, both 9, to bring hamsters Golden and Midnight. "These are their successes," dad Brion Neblett of Tampa said, noting that others were not so lucky.

Sacred Heart Academy, 3515 N. Florida Ave., will host an animal blessing from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. today.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800.

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