Do our pets join us in eternity?

Tuesday, we buried our beloved cat of 15 years, Jack.  He was a sweet and gentle companion and a ferocious hunter.  He loved to kill moles when we lived in Mississippi and rats here in Texas.  He was neutered and not particularly fond of fighting but would run off every cat that invaded his territory.

Our 17 year old siamese was always giving him grief and didn't come to appreciate him till after all her other furry companions were dead.  She would still slap him about the face but he would grab her by his teeth and put her down then she would stop.  She's been looking for him since he died.  It is sad for all of us.

We had left for vacation Sunday a week ago.  We knew he wasn't feeling well but he was eating, drinking and performing as normal.  We decided a week inside sleeping and eating would do him some good.  We came home Thursday night and he seemed fine just a little weight loss.  We debated whether to take him to the vet on Friday and decided it could wait till Monday.  Saturday he had quit eating and I started force feeding him which led to him throwing up.  So, we rushed him to the emergency clinic.  The only real thing they could identify was a little hardness in his spleen.  So they gave him fluids under the skin to hydrate him and something to keep him from vomiting and suggested we give him babyfood to eat.

Monday I had a Drs. appt. and my husband made arrangements to drop him at the vets.  We went to pick him up Monday afternoon and the Dr. told us he had lost a substanial amount of muscle mass but that he had eaten on his own.  The xray did show that a small portion of the spleen might have some issues and that he had tons of gas in his intestines.  But other than that his blood work overall was pretty good and the things that were either low or high were expected in a cat that was dehydrated.

We brought him home with food that I could feed him through a syringe and hair  ball medicine in case he was stopped up by a hairball.  We were to bring him back the next day for another xray to see if anything had changed.  I spent the night with him in the bedroom that Jack had chosen as his sick room.  I was up and down with him all night rubbing his tummy.  In the morning I took him out to use the bathroom (for some reason he woulnd't use the litter box), he urinated but had no bowel movement.  I force fed him twice and gave him another big dose of the hairball medicine.

He was very weak but to us he seemed glad to get the food even if forced on him.  He was walking around the house a little more even though not far.  I put him in one litter box downstairs and he got out of that one and into another and took the stance to have a bowel movement but was unsuccessful.

I got ready and went to the vet.  I was expecting to sit in the waiting room, which was already full, and be there while he was xrayed.  Unfortunately, they asked me to leave him and I complied, though he looked up at me through his kennel and begged me not to leave him there.  Against my better judgment I did.  I called to check on him at 3 and they still hadn't seen him.  I repeated that I wanted to bring him home and would they let me know when I could come and get him.  An hour later the vet called and said he had taken a turn for the worse and was dying.  We jumped in the car and rushed to the vet.

I held him in my arms while David tried not to speed like a madman home.  When he took him out of my arms and walked him around the back of the house, Jack knew he was home.  For the next hour and forty-five minutes we watched our beloved cat as he tried to walk around his backyard to get under his favorite bush and die. 

Thankfully, it was late afternoon and there was deep shade.  So, he lay in the cool grass under our rocking chairs.  A soft breeze was blowing and the wind chimes were tinkling in the backyard.  When the time came I laid down with him in the grass and held his head with one hand and my other hand was under his body where I could feel his heart beat.  He gasped out his last breath and his heart beat its last beat  in my hands.  And we said good bye to our wonderful cat.

David buried him on their little cat path to a fish water trough we had for them in the flowerbed.  We put a paver stone that is very similar to the shape of Mississippi where he was born in the summer of 1998.

I am so upset with myself for leaving him at the vets instead of saying, "I'll bring him back when ya'll aren't so busy."  I am working through my grief and of course as a Christian I go to the Bible for my true comfort.

I have heard from many Bible teachers both sides, "yes" animals go to heaven and "no" animals do not go to heaven.  I have always sided with the YES group, but what does the Bible say.  Interestingly enough the answer lies in the book of Romans, which also contains what is commonly referred to as the Roman Road to Salvation.  The answer to our pets lies specifically in Romans 8:18-23.

Romans 8:18-23 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.  19 for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.  20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,  21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.  22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.  23 And not only they but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we oursleves, groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.       

I have always pondered how unfair it is for creation to suffer for what mankind did.  The creature and creation had no voice in whether Adam and Eve should eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  And so without a discernable voice the creature and the creation have suffered horribly from the mistake of mankind.

I think of Balaam's Ass that was trying to save his life.  The Angel of the Lord plainly told Balaam that if it had not been for his Ass that the Angel would have killed Balaam and spared the Ass.

I will always regret leaving Jack at the vet's.  Would he have lived any longer?  I won't get the answer to that question till both Jack and myself have been redeemed.

Until then I take comfort in knowing that I will see Jack again and all my other beloved pets I have buried throughout a lifetime.