Sleeping with your cat or dog in the same bed

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The key thing is how one defines love. Love is not a display of affection…see this link for a decent definition of love…newadvent.org/cathen/09397a.htm

Doctors of the Church, such as St. Thomas of Aquinas was of the belief that animals cannot love, nor merit the joys of Heaven.
 
blaskoman said:
animals will not be in Heaven (or Hell for that matter). The life force of an animal’s soul is forever extinguished after its death…
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Jesus said nothing is impossible for God. If God decides to reward someone with having their pet with them in Heaven, then their pet will be with them.

Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. Either way it’s up to God and I’ll of course be happy with whatever He decides.
 
Aharpa: I am in total agreement with you…we cannot fathom what God has in store for us in Heaven!
 
We have a new dog, an English Springer Spaniel. He is crate trained for sleeping. He sleeps in his crate at the feet of our bed.
However, if one of us should nap during the day and Dash is not outside or otherwise occupied he will climb up and cuddle.
We have a queen size bed. It really isn’t big enough for the three of us so I expect he will remain crated at night.
 
blaskoman said:
I know many people who are HUGE animal lovers. I don’t begrudge them for their emmotional attachments to their pets. However I do find offense when their love crosses the line (in my view). I particularly find it disturbing that many people actually share their beds with their pets. I do know of many cases in which people actually hug their pets while they sleep (whether it be for warmth or affection)…I find this wrong for a number of reasons: firstly, it is unhygenic to do so, and secondly, the act of sleeping with an animal elevates the animal to human level in a sense (which I feel God did not intend)…Wondering what your take is on this?
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I don’t care where they sleep and sometimes they sleep in our bed, sometimes in their crates, sometimes in the window sill, sometimes on the couch, the floor, the foot stool, wherever they feel like. I have a cat and a dog and they get along great and play together like best buddies. Both are about a year old, very small, about the same size as each other and more than half the time you don’t even know they are in this house. They have great hiding places too. But when I call them they both come running.
I give them both baths, the dog seems to like it much better than the cat though, 😛 . Seriously, I only gave the cat a bath once, and she looked like a drown rat who was trying to escape the entire time. The dog just stands there, in the sink, with a towel under him and waits until I am finished before he acts like a little piggy rubbing all over the carpet after I dry him off, he snorts and groans and shakes and the cat sits there and stares at him like she thinks he’s nuts. They entertain me a lot, they make me laugh and they seem to both like to cuddle with me in the evening, one on each side of me. If either of them tries to sit in my lap the other has “issues” with that and so its best to just have them beside me, my children acted the same way when they were little, go figure.🤷 (except for the sleeping in windowsils and grunting and groaning like a piggie after baths, of course.) 😃
 
I have had several pets over the years (dogs and cats) and have never gotten sick from them. My dog would only sleep with me during a thunder storm because of his fear of the noises outside. And if anyone has ever had at least one cat as a pet knows that no matter how hard you try, it’s impossible to tell a cat “no,” it will always do what it wants to do.

I do cuddle up with my cats at night, mostly because I am so thankful for having them in my life. They have kept me from comitting suicide and have kept my anxiety levels down. I see nothing wrong with people doing likewise or people not wanting animals on any furniture. However, what does this have to do with Catholicism? :confused:
 
strngrnrth said:
From St. Anthony Messenger online
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👍

I took particular note of these, (my bold):

After his death and resurrection, he tells his disciples: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Mark doesn’t say “to every human being,” but “to every creature”!
**(St. Francis apparently took that verse to heart, didn’t he?)

"Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, everything in the universe, cry out: ‘To the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor, glory and might, forever and ever’" (Revelation 5:13). In this picture of heaven all creatures are present and praising God together. **

Book of Daniel (Chapter 3). In the midst of their distress, they invite the whole family of creation to praise the one Lord of all. Just to give a little sampling of this long hymn, the three youths sing: "Sun and moon, bless the Lord…Every shower and dew, bless the Lord…All you winds, bless the Lord…All you birds of the air, bless the Lord…All you beasts, wild and tame, bless the Lord" (v. 52-81).

…we don’t know what God has in store for those who love Him.
 
Allhers: you are implying then that the Gospel is something animals should listen to, contemplate over, and put the teachings to action. I havent heard of something more preposterous. Quite laughable!
 
I am an owner of two very pretty and precious year old toy rat terriers. My husband and I let them sleep with us. You may know that some people may not have the ability or the funds to raise a child and their pets are their children. We lost our 13 year old toy rat terrier last September and both were so devistated that my husband wasnt able to go to work for a few days after she passed. They become family members to you. I even told my mom that since we dont have any kids that she has two granddogs and she loved it. I dont see anything wrong with sharing a bed with your animal. My husband and I have never gotten sick from our animals and neither our animals from us. You just have to have compassion in your heart that some people cant have kids and this is one way that they can have babies of their own. To me I see nothing different than to let an animal sleep with you than people who have a child sleep with them when they are babies. Except our animal babies, (children) never grow up. They are with us forever in our hearts to love. Dont you think St. Francis would be smiling down on someone and looking at them with compassion and love for taking care of God’s Creatures? I feel that not only he but God and Jesus themselves would be doing that. Just have a little compassion in your hearts when you think about this. As far as having a dog lick a person in the face, that is just their way of saying Hey I am glad you are here to take care of me. I love you and you mean everything to me. Thank you for doing such a great job.
That is just how I feel. Also how could you say no to these two faces? http://i36.tinypic.com/xcry1j.jpg
http://i33.tinypic.com/2h6d54z.jpg
 
blaskoman said:
Allhers: you are implying then that the Gospel is something animals should listen to, contemplate over, and put the teachings to action. I havent heard of something more preposterous. Quite laughable!
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Well quite frankly, when my husband and I pray together everyday, one of our prayers is the Holy Rosary, and they gather near us when we pray it aloud, we know that the Rosary is a little Gospel, as the Mysterious refer to the life of Jesus and His Blessed Mother, so, they actually do listen, as for contemplating over it, who knows but God? They sure are a lot more loving and kind then some people I’ve met, dogs and cats have a way of greeting you that seems to show that they do put it into action a lot better than some people.
Now I’m not saying that I think animals are more important than people, as God gave man charge of them, however, I do think that all of God’s creatures are to be cared for with love and respected for who they are.
It isn’t that I don’t eat certain meat or chicken or turkey, but I don’t go around killing them for the fun of it either, I don’t waste food and I say a pray, a blessing, thanking God for providing it before I eat it.
You don’t know God’s plan for them in the big scheme of things anymore than I do, but I know He created them and that they bring great joy to their owners. I’ve even read how they help lower blood pressure, help the handicapped, some of them know when blood sugar levels are off, etc…
 
Blasko-

Many parishes have a blessing of the animals. People bring all sorts of animals to the parish to be blessed - cats, dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, birds, mice, hamsters, etc. etc. etc. One year somebody even brought some horses and goats in trailers, so the priest went out to the parking lot to them!

Some animals “get it” better than some humans!

What do you have against animals? Were you traumatized as a kid or something?
 
I’ve so enjoyed reading everyone’s posts. As you can undoubtedly tell by my posts I love my animals so much. I clearly get the definition of unconditional love when I look at my “puppy” – yes, she’s five years old but she’s still my puppy 😃 I got her when she was two. She was a rescue. She was 12 pounds when I got her – she’s around 18 pounds now – and that was AFTER being in a foster home for a month being treated for heart worms. This puppy had been adopted at 4 months old and apparently forgotten. She was so flea infested when they got her back that they had to shave her to the skin because they couldn’t salvage her coat. She had fleas coming out of every orafice on her body – I mean EVERY orafice. I get the impression she was thrown in a backyard and totally forgotten about – I mean, how hard is it to give your dog a pill once a month to prevent heart worms???

I’m happy to report that she’s fully recovered, healthy, terribly spoiled; but she still has some aftereffects of her previous life. If I raise my voice or rush at her to get something that’s going to hurt her, she actually cowers. It breaks my heart. When people come to my house, she’s so excited but at the same time so scared.

This puppy has overcome so much that “humans” did to her that I truly believe she’s a gift to me from God – got her exactly one month after I had to put my 12-year-old poodle down. God gave me this little life to care for, but she has given me so much more than I could ever give her.

I respect those who don’t share my views, but it does sadden me that they don’t have the truly joyous experiences that I have with my pets.

Paula – mama to my Dixie Belle
 
I slept with my cat. When I got him I had the basement room of a “college house”. It was mighty cold down there at night in Northern MN. He slept on my pillow with his little tum against my face. As he got older he would sleep against my back by my feet.

After he died it was a long time before I could sleep by myself again.

This isn’t my cat, but he looked just like this.
 
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