Erin Go Paw!

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Seven years ago, we started a community event in our lovely village called, St. Puppy’s Day. It entails gathering at the gazebo in the center of Boiling Springs for treats and greets and then parading around Children’s Lake. You never know what March may bring. After the last several years of wind, ice, and blustery cold weather, this past Sunday’s clear skies, sunshine and “warm” temperatures led to a record turnout and gorgeous pictures. Humans and their hounds dressed in green against the blue sky; there is nothing more beautiful! We hope if you’re ever in God’s country, i.e. Central PA, you come and join our pack. It’s always this Sunday before St. Patrick’s Day.

Before the promenading commenced, we read aloud The Legend of St. Puppy:

The stories of St. Puppy are so many and varied that scholars question his historicity claiming him to be an idealized character created to teach litters of puppies to be good dogs.

Some say St. Puppy donned a cloak and cared for sick cats when the plagues of distemper swept through the villages. Meanwhile, others insist that St. Puppy chased all the cats out of Ireland. Such contradictions are common in ancient lore. Might St. Puppy have chased all the cats out of Ireland to keep them from getting distemper? Modern historians are hard at work solving this and other pressing questions about our canine Saint.

St. Puppy’s Day calls to mind one of his greatest stories. One day, St. Puppy was teaching a litter how to sit and stay when proud Squire Squirrel challenged St. Puppy to a race around Loch Wee’uns to a large oak tree. St. Puppy agreed on the condition that they race again if Squire Squirrel wins. Indeed, Squire Squirrel kept winning the race but only by a nose. They kept racing until the squirrel, exhausted, cried, “Why do you keep letting me win???”

St. Puppy replied, “If I don’t, my walk will be over.”

So, on this St. Puppy’s Day, may we all be reminded of his admonition to walk humbly, but often.