When I was at a funeral home talking to a Catholic priest in 1996 during the viewing for my mother in law, I asked him that question and he said no. Of course, his was the learned, Scriptural view.
My view, based on a much lower level of Biblical knowledge, is this: How can a creature with so much love in its heart not have a soul? I am quite sure that if someone attacked one of us, particularly one of our children, our dog, Bo, would sacrifice himself to save them without a second's thought about his own self preservation. How many human beings could say the same thing?
There have been a number of songs and sayings written about the possibility of dogs in heaven (most favor the idea), and even a few about folks not anting to go to heaven if there are no dogs there. I don't know if heaven includes such earthly pleasures as dogs (and chocolate) — maybe in heaven, if there is such a place, we transcend such pleasures of the flesh — but if any creature has earned the right to eternal salvation, I believe man's best friend has.
Cats? Not so much.
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