“As I held her in my arms as she slipped away i have to believe that we will see each other again”

Kelly, I’m sure you will. Dogs have souls, no question about it. I also believe that if you are there at the moment of the soul’s passing, part of it will go into you. I think your dog is already a part of you.

I was not there when my dog died. It tears me up to think that her soul may not be able to find me.

Heck, I don’t even know if you or I have one. No one really knows. But I’ll tell you one thing, whatever it is in us humans that we call a soul — my dog has it, too. Whatever it is that allows us to experience love, loss, joy, sadness, pleasure, pain, curiosity, boredom, empathy, etc., my 14 year old border collie mix certainly has it. Maybe it’s soul, maybe it’s the product of brain function and physiobiochemical reactions. But if there is such a thing as a soul, either both my dog and I have it, or neither of us do.

The picture instantly reminded me of an experience I had some years ago when I was driving some back road through the farmlands of Illinois. I drove past a corral that was up close to the road where a herd of 30 or 40 cows were feeding at a trough. All had heads down chewing away, but one raised her head and followed me with her eyes as I drove past. For a brief moment it felt like her eyes were peering directly into my soul.

Dogs definitely have souls, no two ways about it. I don’t care what any church or religious group says, I know for a fact that dogs have souls. Here’s the proof for my point; any creature capable of overcoming its built-in programming (instincts) and acting against its own survival in an act of heroic self-sacrifice, must therefore possess a soul. If it were truly “just an animal” it could not, and would not be able to, defeat its in-born programmed “hard-wired” instincts, and thus would always fight to save itself instead of bravely sacrificing its life to save other animals and humans. There are countless examples of dogs who were not trained as rescue animals, yet who gladly gave up their own lives to save others, and that capacity for self-sacrifice is absolute proof of the presence of a soul.