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Martha Nowacki

Dr. Koch

CNF

3/18/18

All Dogs Go to Heaven

What greets us when we enter through the gates of heaven? Maybe a relative or a close friend?

It could quite possibly be an angel or Jesus himself. On the other hand, maybe the greeter is much more

hairy, and a tad bit more slobbery than relatives or friends. The way I see it may be somewhat different

than others. When pushing open those gates, I hope to God that I see dogs. I want to see those loving,

brown eyes staring up at me, welcoming me in with wet kisses. I want to touch the soft fur of God’s

wonderful creation. I even want to smell…well, maybe not so much the smell. If you’re a dog lover such

as myself, dog greeters would most likely bring you joy when arriving at the final destination.

I’ve had dogs ever since my parents carried me into my house for the first time, as an infant. The

first dog I can vividly remember my family purchasing was a caramel colored Shih Tzu named Max. He

had little black tipped ears, a tail curled inward, and a cute button nose. Max was such an intelligent

canine. He ran faster than a whip, and figured out how to open doors with his nose.
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One of my favorite memories of Max was when my parents and I walked him to Mercy

Hospital’s parking lot during the evening summer hours. My parents stood on one end with max leashed

up, and I would stand at the opposite end. After reaching my designated area, my dad unhooked Max’s

leash, sending him hurling my way. He looked like a blur as he sped towards me, finally jumping into my

arms, panting heavily. Those nights were absolutely perfect. However, as years passed by, things

weren’t this perfect.

The years rolled on like a steady wave, and Max began to show signs of aging. His beard turned

grey, and his quick pace slowed. At about the same time, my mom thought of a perfect idea: to buy

another dog. Max might like a friend, and maybe this would help him get up and moving despite his age.

The next dog we bought, Victor, was to say the least, an asshole. He formed a love-hate relationship

with me. Every time I wanted to snuggle, he’d growl and try to nip at my face. Victor and Max got along

decently, and they tussled around for several years before things got bad for poor Max. Right around

the time that I began high school, Max made a turn for the worst. He was born with a heart murmur,

and lost a dramatic amount of weight in a short period of time. I knew my days with Max slowly inched

toward a close, but I didn’t want to accept his fate. He was my best friend, and I feared witnessing him

pass away.

My sophomore year of high school recently begun when Max died. I never got to say goodbye,

never got to give him one last hug or inhale the smell of his fur for the last time. The only thing that

really kept me going was Victor. I often talked talk to Victor, and we would have conversations, one-

sided of course, but he listened. I asked him if he thought Max lived on in heaven. Would I ever get to

see Max again? Thoughts continued to circle around my head, as I contemplated the idea of dogs going

to heaven. Can dogs even enter into heaven? Is there a separate place for animals and humans? Victor

refused to help in answering my questions, so my only option rested in letting them fester. I had no

other choice but to continue to ponder the mysterious idea of heaven by myself.
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I’d like to imagine that heaven is dog friendly. I mean after all, God created animals, and thought

of humans as stewards of his creation. We were meant to take care of this magnificent world God

provided for us, even though sometimes animals, especially dogs, care for us at a greater extent than we

care for ourselves. It’s almost as if they sacrifice their own happiness for ours, not caring where they go

or what they do, as long as they linger by our side. Like John Grogan wrote in his book, Marley and Me:

Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog, “A dog doesn’t care if you’re rich or poor, educated or

illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his”. The truth is, dogs don’t care what

we look like or where we come from, they love us for who we are. They’ll listen to the pointless things

we have to say about our days and they won’t abandon us when we get angry with them. From time to

time, I’ll see the story about a boy and the death of his dog floating around on the internet. Basically,

the boy understands that dogs don’t live as long as humans, because dogs already know how to love,

whereas humans need an entire lifetime to figure it out. Dogs are inherently good at loving, seemingly

born for the sole purpose of friendship with people. So why wouldn’t dogs go to heaven? Skipping

straight through purgatory and being led to a giant bowl of treats?

Thinking back, I remember a nun that regularly spoke and led discussion during my middle

school religion class. She told the class, without a doubt in her mind, and with a straight face, that

animals don’t go to heaven. It was obvious to her, that because animals don’t have souls, that they

aren’t worthy enough to enter through the pearly gates. How? How did she know for certain the fate

belonging to animals after death? My mind refused to stray far from these questions, as I sat in my

wooden desk, on the verge of a waterfall of tears. How could we judge whether an animal possessed a

soul or not?
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Souls aren’t exclusive to merely human beings, based on other traditions and belief systems. For

instance, the Hebrew translation of the word soul means “a creature that breathes”, and breath is

central to all living beings including plants and animals alike. Among various Native American traditions,

members of tribes believe that not only animals, but plants too contain a soul. The notion of souls

extending onto animals creates a world of interconnectedness. If all beings, man and beast alike, are

thought to have souls, we are more related than previously thought. Diving deeper, Native American

traditions hit on animal souls having the power to punish people for the pointless destruction of animals

or thanking humans if shown kindness to animals. Not only do souls exist in animals, but they exhibit a

powerful force over humans’ behavior. The Hindu belief system also acknowledges animals and souls,

saying that animals do have souls, but that their souls will eventually enter human bodies in the

reincarnation cycle. Personally, I think a soul is so much bigger than we tend to think—something

literally incapable of being understood fully. Therefore, I didn’t think it right of us to interpret the soul in

regards to humans only, contrary to what the nun claimed.

This prompted me to dive deeper into the theory that I had. Despite aligning myself with Pope

Francis’ thought—paradise being open to all of God’s creatures, I couldn’t turn down the thought of

alternative continuations of our souls. Maybe an afterlife existed, not necessarily a heaven, designed for

all non-human creatures, including dogs, insects, and trees. Or something along the lines of

reincarnation—continuing the cycle of living in different planes of life, never reaching a “state” of

heaven exactly. Still, it is possible that a soul or an energy source from the body, could transfer into

another universe or dimension. The possibilities are endless and vary depending upon one’s religion or

lack thereof. Uncertainty is a central theme in the debate of heaven, some other afterlife, or none at all.

We can only have faith in whatever we believe, that things will turn out right after dying for both

humans and animals.

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Next, I wondered if my willingness and hoping of dogs going to heaven resulted due to my

upbringing. Not everyone is lucky enough to own a dog. I know several people who have always wanted

a dog, but parents snatched the idea right out of thin air. And it’s not only that some people don’t get

this experience, rather some individuals have been robbed of it—maybe due to having a rough

encounter as a child with a dog. Not all dogs are brought up in a loving manner, in that some aren’t

properly trained, socialized, or cared for. Thus, a dog will run the risk of acquiring a mean streak, unsure

of how to behave in the presence of others. Similarly to human beings, who aren’t born belligerent. How

we are raised can have a major effect on who we are later in life. Also it’s possible that some may just be

uninterested in dogs. Their overbearingly, non-stop behavior may have the potential to drive a person

mad. Whatever the case in regards to others’ thoughts, maybe I was a little bias towards the idea of

dogs going to heaven as my love for them blossomed at a very young age. However, I held onto my

perceptions. After all, heaven surpasses our ability to grasp what it contains, so I declined the fact that

dogs ceased to exist after death.

As the years flew by, like sitting in a moving vehicle and watching the scenery move quickly from

left to right, Victor began to show signs of aging. He moved exceedingly slower than he had in previous

years, he no longer climbed stairs, and he simply didn’t care much about anything anymore. Yeah, we

had what seemed like a love-hate relationship, but it was excruciating to witness him go downhill,

month by month, week by week. My family lacked good decision making in regards to when it was best

to euthanize a dog, so we continued to put off thinking about him dying. We wanted to squeeze every

last bit out of him before it was really time. Once the day came, I was in class again. I rushed home to a

small box, which encased Victor who was wrapped in his favorite blanket. As my dad placed him into the

ground, something clicked inside my head, amongst the overflow of tears. This wasn’t Victor. This

lifeless body contained nothing. And that’s when I realized that he no longer carried his soul—a silly,
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fairly simpleminded, regal soul. In between sobs, I pictured him running free, finally reunited with his

best friend, Max.

After Victor’s death, I couldn’t help but contemplate his presence living in heaven or not. I

wondered if I would see him again when I died. I knew that, for human beings at least, if those still living

wanted a sign that their loved one made it into everlasting happiness, they asked God to make it clear to

them. I silently prayed that if Victor was in heaven, I would come into contact with something red in

color (being Victor’s collar color) within the next few days—I wanted it to shout out to me so that I

knew. Turns out, my mom had bought some seeds to plant the day after his passing, and sitting on the

dining room table sat a package of seeds for red flowers. This made me smile and feel warm inside,

because I knew that he was home—I could just feel it burning inside of me. I would see my dear friend

again.

Not long after Victor’s death, someone told me that heaven contains what brought you pure

happiness on earth. For some people, that might be food or listening to their favorite song. Maybe it’s

spending time with friends or going for a hike through the woods. I’ve got a long list of things that have

brought me pure happiness so far on earth, but the one thing that has always been there no matter

what, were dogs. They’ve been there when I struggled with work or relationships, when I was beyond

happy after graduating high school, and when I needed a workout buddy. Dogs have never failed me

once, so when I enter heaven’s gates, I know that I’ll be welcomed with my four legged friends.
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Sources
Danchevskaya, Oksana Y. Concept of Soul among North American Indians.
http://www.se.edu/nas/files/2013/03/NAS-2011-Proceedings-Danchevskaya.pdf
Epstein, Adam. Who's a Good boy: Pope Francis says all pets go to heaven but what do other religions
say? Quartz. 2014. https://qz.com/311346/pope-francis-says-all-pets-go-to-heaven-but-what-do-other-
religions-say/
Grogan, John. Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog. goodreads. Harper Collins.
2005. https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/8002.John_Grogan
What is the Soul? Jehovah's Witness. https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/what-is-a-soul/
https://www.facebook.com/spectacularphotoo/photos/a.1429291933990269.1073741827.1429288930
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