Do Pets Go to Heaven?

Q: When I was 16, the pony that I had received as a gift when I was 5 died. Sometimes I have dreams in which I am stroking his neck and mane. I can smell him, and the touch seems so real. Do you believe that animals have spirits? And that we can contact them in dreams?

Q: My beloved dog passed away five weeks and six days ago. We were together for nearly 15 years. I light a candle for him every night, and I still talk with him and have his pictures up all over.

Recently, I hear this dull knocking sound when I begin to play with Miss Emma, our other dog, and there have been other manifestations. Could it be possible that my dear baby boy is back with me in spirit form?

A: By far the most frequently asked questions regarding animals on the dozens of radio talk shows on which we appear are whether animals have souls and if their owners may expect to meet them again in the afterlife.

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The late Professor Ian Currie, who was a lecturer in sociology at the University of Guelph in Ontario and author of the book "You Cannot Die," once remarked that he had received numerous testimonials from people who had encountered the spirits of their dead pets in the places--homes, fields, barns, etc.--where in life the animals had felt happy and contented. He felt that this was evidence that life after death exists for animals as well as humans, and that we are reunited with those pets with whom we shared an emotional bond on earth.

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