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Lets stop talking about that helluva place:



And go back to the real topic here!

You're right RDM. The topic was about animal spirits.
Well maybe the reason we don't see too many of them is that animal spirits go straight to Heaven...and sometimes ghosts wander the earth because they aren't ready for the afterlife.

Other than roadway accidents I can't think of how an animal might leave behind unfinished business, like us humans so often do, thus being trapped on Earth as a ghost.

Well...unless the animal spirit doesn't want to leave behind his/her human companion.
I could see a loyal cat or dog not wanting to leave his/her human behind.

I just found this thread, which hasn't been active for a few months, but it interests me.

My dog, whom we'd owned for over 14 years, died this summer. I can't honestly say I know for sure I've been "haunted" by her, but for about a month after she died, I kept "seeing" her at the gate out of the corner of my eye. When I'd look straight on, she wasn't there. (We buried her by the gate because it was her favorite spot.)

About ten months earlier, one of our cats died. For a couple of weeks afterward either my husband or I would hear a "meow" coming from the corner of our kitchen where he used to lie, but there was no cat there. (We do own others, but never let any of the others into the kitchen.) Finally, my husband told our kitty that we loved and missed him, and he needed to cross over and wait for us on the other side. The phantom mewing stopped.

My husband is a life-long Lutheran from a conservative synod. I don't think his church teaches that animals have souls, but he adamantly believes that animals are in heaven, because, as he says, "Every image of paradise in the Bible has animals in it." I have a pet theory of my own. I think that, in a way, animals aren't in need of saving grace because they never actually fell. I think they more or less automatically go to Heaven. I think we are the ones who might choose to go elsewhere.

a lot of horror writers have touched on this subject. and some who believe in spirits believe that all living things posses a spirit. i am a christian and i to an extent believe, also, that all living things posses some sort of spirit! so i'd like to think animals move on or what not. i'm not sure though. i'm not educated enough on this topic to elaborate or voice an opinion

Well, my thinking is that if people can love animals so much, and grieve for them when they are gone, how much more must God love them, who made them? I can't believe that God would let them just cease to be.

There's a beautiful peom that I like to refer to when it comes to a lost furry friend. It's called the Rainbow bridge. It's very beautiful and touching; and I get really emotional when I read it.
Although the poem was written very recently, and not necessarily part of any particular religious beliefs, I think the poem reflects a poetic way of what happens when a pet is reunited with a loved one after death. Here's a link to it:

http://www.petloss.com/poems/maingrp/rainbowb.htm

Part of me thinks of the rainbow bridge, perhaps as a branch of Heaven that's specially reserved for animals. The animals I loved and lost, are now healthy and happy, sitting at God's side or on his lap, and enjoying peace and tranquility.
I think that stray, feral and wild animals as well as animals in zoos and circuses etc. deserve to go to heaven as well. All animals in fact. After all, alley cats have a very hard and short life. It'd be nice if there was a paradise they could come to where there's no more fear of getting chased by dogs or harmed by people. Maybe in heaven they wouldn't be afraid of people, because they'd know God's presence was there.

And on another note...a friend of mine and I got into an interesting conversation. Would cat heaven be mouse hell? I mean...I would think in cat heaven there'd be tons of mice to catch and play with. But it wouldn't be heaven for mice now would it?

Heaven must be really big. I'm just thinking of all the good people, all over the world, who will one day die and go to heaven. And then, there's all the billions of people, all the good ones, who have ever lived and died, who are up there right now. How do you ever find anyone you know when you get there?? And now there are cats and dogs up there too? They only live fifteen years, so for every one person up there, there are at least, on average, four cats and four dogs. How do you walk around without tripping? And what about parrots? I used to have a cockatiel named Budgie, and she was a very good birdie. She must be up there, as well as all the other billions of good birdies who have ever lived.

I just hope I can find a chair to sit down in up there when I die. My feet are gonna be pretty tired, trudging through a crowd of trillions.

Don't worry mac, you ain't gettin' in.

You're coming with us...

Andybev01 wrote:Don't worry mac, you ain't gettin' in.

You're coming with us...

That would be hell. You two having to spend eternity with my annoying motormouth. You must've been really awful blokes to have earned such a punishment.

It would serve all 3 of you just about right I think...

Oh, yeah...you're a saint.

I'll be thinking of all of you in my nonexistence after death with my nonexistent cats, Cricket and Badger.