I didn't know you celebrated St Catherine's Day, but I knew about her. I loved reading the Lives of the Saints when I was in Catholic grade school! We have All Saints Day, Nov 1st. Dgdau's school has a Saints Parade. She is 6 and trying to figure who she will be. All the boys want to be Joseph so they can bring their tools to school, HA Thanks for the info. Love learning about the customs.

Thanks All! Konrad, great website. That is exactly how it looks, I guess I should have googled it myself but out here in the country, there is not a lot of things listed on websites. Thanks very much. Doris, yes it has a bell. In fact, it you look in the second photo of the inside of the church, in the very upper right hand corner of the photo, you can just barely see a small white rope. That is the rope used to ring the bell. I was holding it out of the way as I took the photo. I was already standing outside so that I could get as much of the inside of the church in the photo as possible. Clair, why are they closing the church? Remodeling? Kt

Yes, we only take the dogs. Taking our cats (3) would be a recipe for disaster. I guess we could take them in carriers, but with the three, now two dogs, three humans, taking the cats really wasn't practical. sammy - when we started this tradition with first dog, our church was similar to yours. Mass took place in the "hall". We had folding chairs, no kneelers, no carpet, etc. The whole thing was broken down on Sunday evening to get ready for the week of CCD classes and other activities that were scheduled. Our town has a small church that was built early 1900s, when most of the land was working farm land. The small church can only seat about 150 people. As the town's population grew, our "hall" was used for Sunday Mass, accommodating the growing number or residents who practice their faith. After many years of fundraising, we have a now have large church on the property adjacent to the hall. The blessing of the animals still takes place outside in the parking lot of the church, and the Mass still doesn't include the animals - only people:)).

We were married May 31, 1980 at the Otterbein United Methodist Church in Washington, Indiana...the town my parents were living in...20 years earlier my brother had gotten married in the smaller chapel and I just thought it was the most beautiful church...it was a long way for my husbands family to come but they all made it and it was close to most of my relatives...We had our reception at the National Guard Armory and had a country western band...not hubster and I's choice of music but I knew both sides of the family would enjoy it...I still remember it like it was yesterday...even our doggie was present at the reception! It was a fun day for our entire families!