BELLINGHAM — Assumption Catholic School’s annual animal blessing for the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi drew several excited dogs on leashes, a few cats and rabbits stacked in crates, and one rat in a shoebox.

The school’s student body gathered with their pets in the drizzle before school Thursday morning to receive a blessing and a sprinkle of holy water from the Rev. K. Scott Connolly of Assumption Catholic Church.

St. Francis was known for his love of animals, so Catholics and other denominations typically celebrate his feast day by asking God to bless their critters. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church will hold a similar blessing Saturday.

“We ask you to watch over our pets and all of our animals,” Connolly prayed. “May the wisdom of St. Francis and our love for these animals deepen our respect for all of your creation.”

Then Connolly wove through the crowd of students, parents and pets, flinging holy water from a silver hand-held sprinkler. Dogs woofed and strained against their leashes. Maggie King, 8, held her sister’s rat, Rakki, in a shoebox lined with wood shavings. Lisa La Riviere held her daughter’s tiny brown Pomeranian-papillon mix, which shivered despite his yellow sweater.

“All of us are God’s animals,” Connolly said. “So if I get you wet, that’s OK, too.”

Bringing animals to be blessed is a family tradition, said Elizabeth Rybka, an Assumption parent who carried her family’s 8-monthold rabbit, Bluebell, in a traveling crate. The family’s other animals, including three dogs, two cats and a parakeet, have all received a blessing at Assumption, she said.

Rybka’s children see the ceremony as the closest thing to a baptism that pets can get. They plan to put a crucifix on Bluebell’s hutch now that she’s been blessed.

“They were baptized,” Rybka said. “They think their ‘children’ should be baptized as well.”

Taking care of animals, along with being good stewards of the rest of God’s creation, are all part of the church’s teachings, Connolly said.

The Humane Society of the United States recently launched a campaign to encourage religious congregations to support animal welfare causes, particularly improving treatment of animals in industrial agriculture.

After the ceremony, Jessica King, one of several students who gave readings, found her sister Maggie to check on Rakki the rat.

She looked at the closed box in Maggie’s hands and wondered whether the blessing had reached Rakki in the form of holy water. “Did you take the lid off?” she asked.