Dominican Cloister, Prague, image credit: Matěj Baťha, Wikimedia
One would hope that there will be plenty of “God’s Dogs” in heaven, but what about the standard variety?
A surprising and, perhaps welcome, consequence of the doctrine of the resurrection of the body can be found here.
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
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Lovely post, Raven.
It reminds Toad of a story he may well have told already on CP&S (he is old and forgetful and foolish) If so, he is sorry. But the topic is of consuming interest. Sez he.
A Jesuit was tryting to persuade a Tartar Warlord to convert:
“When you become a Catholic, you will live in Heaven – in eternal bliss – after you die,” said the Jesuit.
“How many horses will I have there?” asked the Tartar.
“None,” admitted the Jesuit.
“Then why on earth would anyone want to go to such a useless place?” asked the Tartar.
(But what of Mothers-in-Law for all eternity, to say nothing of Edu’s horrible, aggressive dog, or malarial mosquitos? Hmm.)
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Since nobody has risen to the bait here, another somewhat similar tale from Toad in his anecdotage (make that anectoadage.)
Spanish Conquistadors were routinely torturing an Aztec, (or Mayan, I forget which) prince, before killing him in some normal and unpleasant fashion.
“If you convert to Catholicism before we kill you, you’ll go straight to Heaven,” they informed the victim.
“Where do you people go when you die?” asked the prince.
“To Heaven, of course.” said the Spaniards.
“I’ll skip the baptism, in that case,” said the prince, “Just kill me.”.
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From your anecdotes, Toad (and I really liked “anecdotage”), I can only conclude that heaven is replete with horses but short of Tartars and Spaniards.
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Well, I shall certainly “rise to the bait” to comment on this fascinating subject. (Trouble is – as I’ve said before – I have to share my computer, and can’t always read all the lengthy articles in my ‘time slot’, resulting in my coming in late to debates sometimes!)
This is a beautiful post, and very well argued. How often have our children not asked us that question: “Do dogs go to Heaven?”
I have always hoped that our Almighty and Ever-loving God would not shut Heaven’s doors to our beloved pets. As the author of the linked post mentions, dogs (in particular) often show such noble, generous, human qualities, one must often admit they are the ‘best‘ of the family and an example to the rest of us!!
We had a wonderful dog called Bonny, a bitch, when my children were little. She was so knowing and intelligent, as well as being amusing, loving, playful and very very protective of her humans…… (she ‘thought’ we were her pets!) No other dog we’ve ever had before or since can compare to her. Though it may seem impossible to believe Bonny won’t now be running over the green hills of Heaven, we do know dogs don’t have ‘immortal souls’….. this can create a dilemma.
Yet in Heaven we shall “lack nothing”, and there are numerous texts in the Bible that can be clues towards believing all these desires of our heart will be fulfilled. As Kristor points out, with the Resurrection of our bodies, we shall need a ‘place‘ for these bodies. Heaven, although more sublime and beyond our wildest imaginings, cannot be so completely different from this world we now live in, for that would be a rather frightening and alien idea. In that case surely won’t birds, animals, trees, flowers etc. in this ‘new creation’ also be there? Won’t there be some resemblance to all we have known and loved on Earth, without its ‘evils’?
This is a perceptive comment in the article by someone called Kenny:
“As a dog owner and lover and as a Catholic I have always taken comfort from scripture, St Paul says “Love Hopes All Things” and I hope to spend eternity after the general resurrection with all those people and creatures I have loved during my lifetime on earth. Also God says “Behold I Make ALL things new” and I firmly believe that he will renew ALL the good things in creation including the individual creatures such as pets we have enjoyed here in Him. I am no theologian, philosopher or quantum physicist, all I know is that God is Love and beauty itself and when I look at animals I see that they in some mysterious way contain him and reflect his glory. Nothing ceases to exist, all is present to God who is not subject or confined to space and time. Everything, all creation, past present and future is just one giant thought in the mind of God and he never stops thinking it.”
After His Resurrection, Our Blessed Lord says many times, “Peace be with you.” To have that peace, I believe we should leave things to God. He knows our needs and yearnings. He will not defraud us.
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Apropos of Kathleen’s story of her dog Bonny, just this very morning, a pilgrim asked me,
“Do all these dogs (four) belong to you?”
“No,” I said, “I belong to them.”
On the other hand, a day or so earlier, the dogs were all digging, with a pilgrim watching.
“Estan cazando los ratones,” I explained to him (They’re hunting mice.)
“No parlo Italiano,” was his reply.
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Obviously a Frenchman Toad 🙂
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Turned out to be from Liverpool, in fact, Gertrude.
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