If I told you, “It’s been a heck-of-a-week!” I would be understating matters.

Sweet magical Helen’s passing was the straw that broke my heart.

Sweet Helen’s quality of life would not recover and would continue to deteriorate, so I made the agonizing decision to put her to sleep.

Anyone who has ever needed to do the same understands, the teetering of thought between, “Is it selfish of me to not step-aside from my own needs to have her here with me, while she continues to suffer?” Or “Is it selfish of me to relieve her of the suffering, because I can no longer continue to watch her deteriorate?”

By the grace of God and a kind & caring Veterinarian, I knew I needed to step aside so that Helen could finally rest in peace.

I have had a lot of wonderful, loving family members and friends ministering to me in these most recent days, for which I am extremely grateful. It is both comforting & humbling to have others supporting you in your grief.

As a result, I have found myself asking “Is it wrong for a Christian to mourn an animal?” I admit that I cried a great deal when I had to put Helen down, both before and after the fact. I brought Helen into our home in 2014, at a period of great despair and tumult within our family, and I sometimes believe if I had suffered through that period alone, I might have completely fell into an unrecoverable despair. 

Helen was the sweetest-tempered animal I have ever encountered. She welcomed in everyone who came to visit with an enthusiastic “wiggle-butt” dance and a smile as broad as a red barn door! That was pretty much how she greeted everyone.

She truly was magical!

While wrestling through some emotions of the heart & questions in my head, an article showed up in my email that has helped immensely. Darrick Taylor put into words so perfectly the comfort I have been seeking and put some questions to rest. If I didn’t know any better I think he may have peered into my heart to write it, (although I highly doubt the amount of research needed would have been included by me!)

Mr Taylor suffered the loss of his dog, Gus, this year as well. He tells the comical story of how Gus entered his life and the wonderful dog that he was during the 12 years Gus was his faithful best friend. I am going to close my post to you using Mr. Taylor’s words from his article. Imagine they came from my heart. I believe they are one & the same…

Mr. Taylor writes…

“Is it wrong for a Christian to mourn an animal?” There is a reason I ask the question. Some people do seem to lavish more affection and spend more time and money on their animals than they do on people. There is something to this. St. Augustine once wrote of the ordo amoris, the order of love that is due to each being or object, according to its worth in the scale of being. We ought not to love creatures more than the Creator, nor those creatures who are not made in the image and likeness of God more than those who are—our fellow human beings. 

Christ took on human nature, not that of other creatures. There are beings who are more worthy of our love than others, and it is wrong to give greater love to those less worthy. We owe love first of all to God, and to our fellow man; and as my pastor recently remarked, all of our prayers and good works have only one purpose: to make us love God and our fellow man more.

Like many, I have always struggled to love my fellow man, and I would be dishonest if I did not admit the same problem with loving God. From a certain point of view, weeping over a dog does sound unreasonable. Why put so much affection into creatures who are not our equals, who do not share our capacity for reason, our freedom of will? Or Almighty God, whose love for us is infinite? 

The reason is precisely because our pets are not our equals. Human relationships are fraught with much higher stakes precisely because we possess reason and freedom of will that animals do not. 

Mark Twain once wrote that “if you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.” Human beings betray, reject, lie to, and falsely judge their fellow men constantly because they are superior beings to animals. As they are capable of greater good, so they are capable of greater evil. Human love is greater than that of animals but so are the emotional risks that come with it. 

By contrast, if you ill-treat a dog, he will become ill tempered, perhaps dangerous. But if you treat him well, he will shower you with affection every time. Some would say this is because the dog just wants food or treats from their human owners and not because they truly have affection for them. This is to suppose animals are mere brutes or machines of some kind. But they obviously possess a nature, one which we share in part with them. 

That they only repay good for good is not proof of their complete soullessness but of their simplicity. That is their virtue as inferior creatures, that they can only act according to their nature, a virtue which human beings—precisely because we can reject our superior nature—often fail to practice. But contempt for inferiors is no sign of virtue, nor is expressing contempt for those who love their animals too much and their fellow men too little. 

Of course, there is one more way in which human beings are generally thought superior to animals. That is the question of whether or not animals can “go to Heaven.” Many years ago, Paul VI told a young boy disconsolate at the death of his dog that “one day we will see our pets in the eternity of Christ.” Traditionally, the Church has tended to see things differently. 

A decade ago, the Thomist philosopher Edward Feser engaged in an argument with the Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart on this subject. He argued against animals being present in the afterlife on metaphysical grounds, but he also pointed out that biblical passages that suggest animals might “go to Heaven” are mostly poetical or metaphorical. 

Though I am no metaphysician, I tend to think Feser and the Thomists are probably right. The promises of eternal life were made to mankind because he is made in the image and likeness of God. “The dwelling place of God is with men,” says the Book of Revelation. It would go beyond what Christ promised us in Revelation to say that our pets will definitely go to Heaven or that God owes us this somehow. 

Still, Scripture does not definitively rule it out. And I think a pious, private hope that we may be reunited with our beloved animals is not heresy. It is a hope that I harbor myself.

But if God destines our pets to pass away entirely, this does not make Him cruel or unjust. God loves all His creatures infinitely more than we ever could, even if He does not grant all of them eternal life. Our time with our loved ones on this earth, human or otherwise, is limited, and whether we will reunite in Heaven with any of them is ultimately in His hands. If they do not “go to Heaven,” our animals will at least no longer suffer and will be at rest.

As for myself, I cannot believe the God who has blessed me with loving family and friends—and yes, even a faithful animal such as a dog—could ever truly be cruel. To answer my own question, I don’t think it is wrong to mourn for a beloved pet, as long as our affection for them helps us to live more simply and grow in love for God and neighbor. And that is why, in spite of my heartbreak at his passing, I will always be grateful to God for bringing little Gus into my life.”

And I feel the very same way about our sweet magical Helen.

hugs n’ blessings for dog kisses, wiggly tails, golden smiles and magical moments shared with man’s best friend.