A Cat tries revive her friend.

A very sad video, but a teaching lesson when it comes to animals.

Thanks for that, RC -- sad indeed.

I don't have a link, but there was a video on YouTube showing a man who was playing with his dogs, having set up the video camera to record it. The man dropped dead while the camera was running, and the dogs pawed at him for a couple of seconds, then they walked away and left the area.

We can't really make any conclusions from such scenes, for there is too much missing info. Animals act according to their habits. What activity did they habitually engage in at that time of day? What usually happened after similar situations in the past? How were they "trained?" Circus performing animals are trained to do things that the spectators do not expect to see, for entertainment purposes. Would it be honest to use their behavior as a basis for how animals think?

People enjoy thinking that their animals have specific human qualities. How do we distinguish it from people having animal qualities? Cartoons depict animals talking and interacting as if they are human, but that's just fantasy. We know how cartoons are made. Animals don't make cartoons, people do. Movies and TV shows have been made to depict animals with apparent intelligent behavior, but once again, animals didn't make the shows, people did.

I saw the video. I said, "thanks for that."

I also said, that we cannot really make conclusions from such scenes, because we don't know the whole story.

Some animals appear to "mourn" over the death of a friend, others do not.

You could say the same about people. Some care, some don't. You might notice this in your own immediate family.

I don't think that we are allowed to believe that animals have souls. But God does love animals and he can make Heaven however He wishes when He is done with this earth.

But I would like to add that this is a sign of the times. When people care about their animals more than they do about having children. Certain people that is.

Quote from: Darcy

But I would like to add that this is a sign of the times. When people care about their animals more than they do about having children. Certain people that is.

Well I agree about people caring more for the environment than children because of 'population control' but there is nothing wrong about caring about animals. When did this become a liberal idea?

There's nothing wrong with caring about animals, per se. There is nothing
wrong with caring for animals, either. A zookeeper does this for employment.
But ask any zookeeper about his attachment to the animals he must care for.
Some animals are easy to befriend, and others not so much, and still others,
impossible. But a zookeeper is required to care for all of them.

I met a woman in an animal shelter who was fawning over the cats in their cages.
I made a few comments in good nature, and she gradually started to open up to
me. Finally, she explained that people are no damn good, and they don't have any
right to be alive. Animals should rule the world and have complete freedom of
movement to live in a natural state without any interference from humans. She
wasn't intelligent enough to have come up with this opinion on her own. She must
have gotten it from PETA people or some "animal rights activist group" like that.

To her, and to many others alive today, particular animals are a kind of deity
which they worship. Ancient Egyptians, for example, worshiped cats. The cats
didn't seem to mind. And cats today likewise don't mind when humans revere
them as if they were gods.





Here is an advertisement for a book, currently in print and available:

Friar Jack Wintz explains how the Bible and Christian tradition promise that all of creation — even our beloved pets — will be in heaven with us. He wants you to know — the Bible gives us many clues that we will be with our pets in heaven for eternity!

"Our God is a God of overflowing love, goodness, and beauty who is ready to give over everything to those he loves. This goodness is reflected in the whole family of creation. When God says of any creature, whether human or nonhuman, that it is good or very good, it's not a simple matter of moral goodness. The creature also has an inherent goodness and beauty — a beauty that reflects God, who is beauty itself."

Complete with space for presenting the book to a friend who has just lost, or is soon to lose, a beloved pet; prayers and blessings for all animal companions; and plenty of hope and inspiration, Friar Jack says unequivocally:

All creatures form one family of creation. And the more we see the implications of our belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and accept the biblical vision of God’s inclusive love, the clearer we are able to say of our beloved animal companions who have died: We will see you again in heaven!






Apparently this "Friar Jack" is some kind of authority, eh? He speaks
"unequivocally."

Time was, books for sale in Catholic book stores had to be approved by the local
bishop. That's gone out the window after Vatican II, in case you didn't notice. Now
any Joe, or Jack, can be accepted as an authority, even when he openly commits
theological errors or worse.

For example, he's using the Bible to support his novelty, a novelty that is actually
quite ancient, it's just being "resurrected" lately by some who are "in the Church"
even though they're ignorant of her teachings. But he conveniently omits the fact
that when God said that animals were "good" it was before the Fall of Adam, when
animals were actually good, but those days are gone. With the corruption of
original sin, any goodness we observe in animals is merely a vague reflection of
the true goodness they had in the Garden of Eden, which true goodness is now
lost due to the fallen nature of man -- which affects all of material creation.

As for "moral goodness," it has always been and always will be impossible for
animals to be morally good or bad. They cannot sin, for they have no immortal
soul. As for "prayers and blessings for all animal companions," what would be the
objective of such a "prayer?" To make Fido stop tearing up the draperies? To
make Gigi stop clawing up the couch?

Someone ought to let Friar Jack know that if "all of creation, even our pets, will
be in heaven with us," then pound for pound, people in heaven would be
surrounded by about a million times as much animal and vegetable living material,
most of which would be stuff nobody would possibly want anything to do with, like
scorpions, black widow and brown recluse spiders, poisonous snakes, dinosaurs,
alligators, hyenas, plankton, sharks, ants, fleas, killer whales, ticks, E. coli, poison
oak, thorn bushes and all the lions that ate the early Christians.