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Heavenly Dog

Excerpted from "What Do Dogs Know?":

Are there dogs in Heaven? For those who love dogs, it would be the worst form of a lie to call any place where dogs were banned "Paradise." Certainly no loving God would separate people from their canine friends for eternity.

Robert Louis Stevenson, author of novels such as Treasure Island, declared, "You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there before any of us." George Eliot, the English writer of Middlemarch and Adam Bebe, asked:"Shall we, because we walk on our hind feet, assume to ourselves only the privilege of imperishability? Shall we, who are even as they, though we wag our tongues and not our tails, demand a special Providence and a selfish salvation!"

Then there was Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. Tradition says that he promised Oissain, the son of the great hero Finn MacCumhail, that for helping him Christianize the land he could have his hounds in Heaven.

Martin Luther; Founder of the Protestant church, was once asked by a child whether her dog would be allowed in Heaven. He gently patted the dog's head and said, "Be comforted, little dog, thou too in the Resurrection shalt have a tail of gold."

I had a dream shortly after my old cairn terrier; Flint, died. In it Flint was lying beside the gates of Heaven, and an angel came out to ask him why he didn't come in. In the telepathic speech common to celestial beings, my dog answered,"Can't I just stay out here awhile?  I'll be good and I won't even bark. You see, I’m waiting for someone that I miss very much. If I went in alone, it wouldn't be Heaven for me." I woke from that dream to to find tears on my face.

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