Animal lovers: Pay attention.
Sunday, Dec. 7, 2 p.m., rain or shine, Christ Church, 60th and Park, is my sixth annual Blessing of the Animals. Open to all, everyone.
Sponsored by the New York Post, presented by national no-kill shelter Best Friends, plus Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine and Baker Institute for Animal Health, it’s free to any lovers of pets (however, studs and mistresses not included).
Come. Bring your feathered and furry beloved friends — big, small, growling, meowing or chirping. Jazzy, my 4-pound Yorkie, and his 3 ¹/₂-pound Yorkie sister Juicy will greet them.
No reservation. No VIP placement except maybe Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, who’ll be in the front row. It’s 700 or more humans and creatures (last year one broker brought a fish in a bowl) and seating’s first come, first served.
Hand-held, hand-led or hand-caged, each with its owner goes up to the altar to be individually blessed by Minister Stephen Bauman and, for the Jewish pets, Rabbi Peter Rubinstein.
The hour service opens with the award-winning (they’ve sung on the “Today” show) Uniondale High School “Rhythm of the Knight” choir carols. Then, since you can’t compete with the barking, a short homily — animal Bible stories — a prayer and a hymn. Next, a procession of police dogs with handlers. Then, farm animals — llama, alpaca, pig, goat, sheep, chickens. Next, Best Friends Animal Society’s adoptable dogs and cats.
Following our pooches, kittens, gerbils, turtles, parrots getting blessed for the holiday, the ministers do the same for NYC police horses outside.
But no pets without owners. No owners without pets. Sunday. Dec. 7. 2 p.m. Christ Church, 60th and Park. Rain or shine. Free to all.
Shotguns & weddings
JON Cryer, sliding away from “Two and a Half Men,” plays his lover’s husband’s killer in the movie “Hit by Lightning.” He says: “I’m a virgin murderer. But no gun virgin. Years ago in a movie I held one and shook so badly that my hand wouldn’t stay still and it looked like the thing was broken.”
About his marrying Ashton in the TV series: “A stupid idea. I said, ‘I see why I’d marry him, but I have trouble seeing why he’d marry me.’ It’s dumb. But they stuck with this idea and so it will be.”
Acrobatic acts
NIK Wallenda, seventh generation of the famous flying acrobatic aerialists, made a world record with Sunday’s televised nighttime high-wire walk between Chicago skyscrapers 500 feet up. No net. No harness. Blindfolded.
Suppose he needs the john? “Use the restroom before. It’s drain that bladder.
“I’ve performed since age 2. I’m prepared. Cardio, weight training, gym five days a week. Diet, 1500 calories daily.
“Fear turns into respect. I respect danger. My heart beats faster, but I’m not shaking. It’s meditation. Keep your mind off stress, which causes accidents. If fear comes into your mind, filter those thoughts out so they don’t become giants.
“Our children have no interest in doing this. My oldest says: ‘What the hell is that?!’ ”
Odds & ends
GERALDO at Angus Club Steakhouse. Doing a rib-eye plus glasses of cabernet. At lunch yet . . . PRESIDENT Sukarno of Indonesia’s daughter Karina and grandson Kirhan, age 7, at Serendipity. Each noshing an end of a footlong hot dog . . . YE aulde days Gallaghers, West 52nd steakhouse. Changed hands, got redone and now so superhot that it’s SRO. Trust me, truly wonderful.
SUPERMARKET meat counter: “Thanksgiving tip. Get your turkey from a reputable butcher. Last year some people wound up buying a chicken with a gland condition.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.