When our 19 year old cat succumbed to illness, a cyst on his esophagus and fluid around his heart, he could not breath without severe pain and was in an oxygen chamber. We decided to ask the vet to euthanize him because we could not take him home.
My teenage girls cried. I cried and my husband cried. One girl said now Shadow is in heaven and it made her feel better. The other girl said, that is not what the church teaches. he can’t be in heaven.
I intervened and said we don’t know and he is out of pain and tried to steer the conversation away from this argument as it was not the time with the deceased cat in my daughter’s arms to tell her that her beloved pet was gone and she would never see him again.
Will animals be resurrected and experience the glory of God? I don’t know. I don’t think that any of Jesus teachings or the Early Church Fathers were able to definitively say that cats, dogs, pet fish, birds, cattle, hogs, etc. will be at our side in heaven. If a dog or cat goes to heaven, do alligators and lions and tigers and bears? What about spiders?
It is a mystery.
