Beasts queue up for blessing

A poodle dressed in pink and a cat in a red jumper were among the animals queuing up outside Catholic churches in Mexico city waiting to be blessed by priests. The annual ceremony, called “The blessing of pets”, marks Saint Anthony the Abbott'

Household pets and farm animals were sprinkled with holy water by a priest reading a special animal prayer, which according to believers, will protect them from diseases.

But one priest admitted he wouldn't let the creatures inside his church as they tended to “fight and leave puddles.”