UNDERSTANDING DOGS — and — A DOG’S UNDERSTANDING

UNDERSTANDING DOGS – AND – A DOG’S UNDERSTANDING  –  —  by Mary A. LaClair

Barbershops and beauty parlors can be a wealth of miscellaneous information. The thing my friend and I learned there recently was quite profound. But it wasn’t about hair or beauty treatments. It was about dogs being able to relate to death. I heard a long time ago that service dogs should not be taken into a funeral parlor. Having no reason to question it at the time I dispatched the idea.

However, more recently I learned something else, something which others have said they knew, but which I found quite profound. Here is the story as I witnessed it.

A lady’s husband had died a few day earlier was getting her hair done before calling hours. Being close to her, I drove her there and stayed with her, so I know this is true.

Friend: “My husband was killed in an accident on Sunday, today is Tuesday and I think his dog is feeling remorse. I don’t know how to help him.”

Hairdresser: “He may not understand why he is being abandoned. He may be feeling rejection and does not understand why. Do you have any of the clothes your husband was wearing when he died? If so, take some of those clothes and put them in front of the dog. Animals, especially dogs, do understand death, and are able to smell it. If you put those clothes in front of him he will smell his master, and he will smell death, he will relate it and then he will understand. He will understand that he has not been abandoned. Dogs understand death.”

It sounded like good advice to us.

We took our friend home, and together we did just that. We took the shirt and jeans the husband was wearing when he was killed in the accident and laid those clothes on the kitchen floor. They reeked of engine fluids so we both had our doubts. But the man’s faithful canine companion came to them and laid his head on those clothes. For about forty-five minutes he still lay there quiet as can be. Then he got up and went into the living room. There, he lay on the floor by the man’s favorite chair. He slept here for several hours. He never returned to the clothes which had been left on the kitchen floor for the rest of the day. He understood.

The clothes were then buried on the farm under the grape vine the husband had been trimming the day before the accident. The dog understands death. He knows his master has not abandoned him. He did stop at that grape vine several days later, and stood stock still, almost as if in remembrance and honor.

In a day or two the dog’s appetite returned. He understood, he grieved, he recovered.

I am completely awestruck at the sensitive smell and understanding which He has given dogs.

My friend is doing well, thank you and so is the dog. I understand that it took more than a week or two for her appetite to return, but with God’s help and the good friends He provides, she is doing well and thankful to know that her husband was friends with Jesus on earth; and she knows that he is becoming even better friends with Him in Heaven. That is a cause to be happy.

Does God care for his animals? Yes, more than we may think! He cares for their emotional health, just as he does ours. They are His creation and He loves them as such.

I believe we will answer for how we treat our animals; and I believe animals will answer to God particularly if any become man-killers. For Scriptural basis on these thoughts, please visit other articles in the animal category in the archives at this site, for example you may wish to read the article DO DOGS GO TO HEAVEN? or go to: www.LookListenAndThink.com and look for the topic on ANIMALS.  

Thank you for reading, and may you be blessed with a healthy relationship with your dogs and other pets, and may you be even more blessed with an even healthier relationship with God, through Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit.

Some readers may also wish to visit www.TheProverbs120Column.com for the article: “Are We All Children of God?”, if your dog is in heaven, you will want to be sure of being there yourself. Check it out. Another interesting article called: TREES TALK, CRY AND SING. Has your interest been sparked on that one? Check it out, you’ll be surprised and educated all at once.

• “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, the wonders He has prepared for those who love Him”            1 Cor. 2:9

• “If you [really] love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands.” John 14:15 (Amp.)

1 Corinthians 2:9 (CEV) | :

⁹ But it is just as the Scriptures say,

“What God has planned for people who love him is more than eyes have seen  or ears have heard. It has never even    entered our minds!”

 1 Corinthians 2:9 (KJ21) :

⁹ But as it is written: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”

John 14:15 (ASV)

¹⁵ If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments.

John 14:15 (AMP)

¹⁵ If you [really] love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands.

DO DOGS GO TO HEAVEN?

 DO DOGS GO TO HEAVEN?

–         M.A. LaClair

Do dogs go to heaven?

We are told in Titus 3:9 to avoid stupid controversies (RSV) and to not get involved in arguing over unanswerable questions and controversial theological ideas (The Living Bible)

First let me say that I don’t think asking whether dogs go to heaven is a stupid question, nor do I believe it is unanswerable from Scripture. The writer of Ecclesiastes asked this question thousands of years ago. His pondering of old gives us clues for our positive answer today.

I’ve heard numerous people, and some denominations, say animals don’t have a spirit and therefore cannot go to heaven.  Let’s put that statement to rest once and for all.

Eccl 3:21 “Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth?” RSV

This is saying that the beasts (animals) do indeed have a spirit.

Eccl 12:7 “Then shall dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”  NKJV

emphasis mine. This is not saying all will live in Heaven, but all will return for judgment

Chapter eleven and chapter sixty-five of the Prophet Isaiah each describe the new heaven and the new earth: he who dies at 100 will be considered a mere youth; the wolf and the lamb will feed together and the lion will eat straw like an ox. We don’t see that in this world, so it relates to the next.  Animals will be there who will neither harm nor destroy.

Revelation mentions riders on horses coming from heaven. There are horses in heaven and animals in the new world. To me, all this confirms that there are animals at peace in heaven. Don’t worry, there will be no threatening dogs, only peaceful ones, just as the lion will be.

In addition I pose two more theories:

First, there will be trees and rivers in Heaven, and many jewels form the foundations, and Heaven’s gates are made of pearls.  Do non living jewels have spirits or a soul?  Does water?  Yet, Scripture tells us these things are in Heaven. We will see further on in this article that Scripture also tells us trees will talk and sing.

Second, most animals are more in tune with the spirit world than a lot of men. In this life a dog can sense evil intent in man. A horse can sense the spirit of fear. Not all people like cats because they think some of them are spooky.

Do animals know God?   What about the serpent in the Garden? What about Balaam’s donkey who saw an angel?*  Today, some animals are more obedient through instinct than mankind is through intelligence!

About the future, Scripture says:

Isa 11:6   “…   the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. (NIV)

Yes, there will be animals at peace in heaven.

Our dogs and other pets who have been more loyal and obedient to the voice of the Lord in the here and now, and more loving to others in this world than possibly we ourselves have been, do have a place in the more perfect world to come. Scripture reveals it.

Third, the Scripture found in the Old Testament confirms itself in the New Testament.

Rom 8:18-22:

“For all creation is waiting patiently and hopefully for that future day when God will resurrect his children (those humans which have been saved by Grace). 20 For on that day thorns and thistles, sin, death, and decay –the things that overcame the world against its will at God’s command-will all disappear, 21 and the world around us will share in the glorious freedom from sin which God’s children ( humans saved by Grace) enjoy.  22 For we know that even the things of nature, like animals and plants, suffer in sickness and death as they await this great event.” TLB  (emphasis mine)

http://theproverbs120column.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/trees-talk-cry-and-they-sing/

With access to the Amplified Version one will find this statement reinforced as it regards the balance of creation.  These statements confirm that God has a special place for all His creation, moreover He makes humans the vanguard of all that He created.

“Study to show thyself approved, a workman who needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Tim. 2:15)  Do dogs go to heaven?  I believe the above study shows us that we will see in heaven those dogs who were faithful to us here on earth. If you are afraid of dogs here on earth, please be assured that only peaceful dogs will be there, for in Heaven, all are at peace!

I strongly recommend the book HEAVEN IS FOR REAL by Todd Burpo, now an international best seller, where a child who visited Heaven in a near death experience tells of his seeing Jesus and other things in Heaven.   One of the things was his Father’s Grandfather and his dog – etc….

Also *Dr. David Dosa, a geriatrician at the Steere House Nursing and Rehab Centre in Providence, Rhode Island published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007 about “OSCAR THE CAT.” He finally published the non-fiction book by the same name. It is about Oscar the cat who predicted which patients were going to die and when and did so with more accuracy than experienced nurses.  His article may be found on line. His book may be found or ordered most anywhere.

As an aside: The Old Testament tells us the trees cry (Zech 11:2); trees will clap their hands, the rivers and hills will rejoice (Is 55:12); Joshua’s rock was a witness because it heard (Josh 24:27) (Luke 19:40); See the authors article: SCIENCE PROVES THE BIBLE: TREES TALK, CRY AND THEY SING.  

New Testament Scripture does tell us that:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, the wonders HE has prepared for those who love Him! “ (1 Corinthians 2:9)

* Numbers 22:21-28 Balaam’s donkey speaks

P.S.   See additionally the recent post ANIMALS WILL BE JUDGED BY GOD for more assurance, that if you will be in heaven, you will see there with you, your faithful dog (cat) or your faithful horse (etc.)  One may also wish to see on this site: WILL MY HORSE BE IN HEAVEN? which incorporates much of the material herein but which also includes information special to horses.
May I direct you to my article which says it is alright to trap mice in mousetraps – scripture included – ‘we are to have dominion over animals’. This article includes an explanation given to my grand-daughters when they ‘caught me’ setting a mouse trap. It includes their reactions. It contains what many have called ‘delightful learning’.
https://looklistenthink.wordpress.com/category/animals/killing-mice-in-mousetraps/

P.P.S.  I’d like to refer readers to another site about dogs and animals in heaven – a lovely story in Guidepost’s Angels on Earth magazine on-line – it is a warm story, and the comments from their readers which follow their article are most interesting.

P.P.P.S.  I now recommend the author Gary Kurz and his book on animals and heaven.  I’ve just reviewed his  COLD NOSES AT THE PEARLY GATES. and would suggest it to you.     I’m sure this book may be found on Amazon. Happy continued reading.  / M.L.