Wearing his Sunday best and arriving in a pram, Chispi was one of dozens of dogs blessed by a priest in Madrid to celebrate the patron saint of pets. Father Angel sprinkled a few drops of holy water on Chispi's head and blessed him. The 10-year-old shih tzu was wearing a special red coat for the occasion. "We hope this will allow him to live another year longer," said Chispi's owner, 56-year-old Maria Luz Gomes, who comes every year to the festival all the way from Cantabria in the north of Spain. Mar Lopez, 45, travelled 50 kilometres from Zarzalejo to the capital but brought her two dogs, eight-year-old Gromit and Frida, one.
"Saint Antony loved and blessed animals. He said they were God's creatures and that's why we bless pets here," father Joaquim stated at the St Anthony church in Chueca, a Madrid neighbourhood popular with the gay community. A hermit and Spain's patron saint of animals, the likes of Velazquez, Bosch and Di Cosimo painted St Anthony alongside a pig.
