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11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 12 In a loud voice they were saying:

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”
13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”

Yes, the Lamb here refers to Jesus. But every creature in heaven ... implies, well, creatures _in_ heaven.

That people require salvation— the finished work of Christ on the cross— to enter heaven, does not mean that other creatures will be excluded. It merely means that they do not require salvation.

Will there not be angels there? Do only white horses get a pass?

All of creation was pronounced good. God used a donkey to warn Balaam, knows when sparrows fall. Calls those who care for their animals “righteous.”

He is great, merciful, powerful, worthy of praise.

For those of us of the Catholic persuasion, we also have the example of St. Francis of Assisi who is said to have spent ample amounts of time preaching to the animals.

It occurs to me that this most humble, pious of men, blessed with the stigmata and founder of a religious order that has lasted 800 years, would have wasted much of his time preaching to the animals were there not some purpose behind it.

Many Catholic churches still offer the Blessing of the Pets on St. Francis' Feast Day, October 4.

The Orthodox Monks of New Skete, who's Monastery is largely supported by the German Shepherds they breed, raise and train have also considered the question, and leave the answer in the heart and mind of the believer:

"Do the bonds of relationship extend beyond this life?
We have no proof, one way or another. But there is a depth
to our experience that awakens faith, faith that in the mysterious
character of life ultimately nothing of real value will ever be lost.
OUR CLOSEST RELATIONSHIPS,
BOTH WITH HUMANS AND WITH DOGS,
SOMEHOW POINT BEYOND THEMSELVES,
LEADING US TO HOPE THAT THERE IS INDEED
SOMETHING OF THE ETERNAL PRESENT IN THEM.

And what people tend to forget is that there was no death in God’s original creation — ergo, animals were always intended to be eternal just like humanity (and they were created before humans). What God intended will be fulfilled, despite man’s worst intentions.

It’s only been in the past 100 years or so that imbecilic arguments have arisen to question God’s love for all of his creation: animals don’t have souls therefore they can’t get to Heaven (Scripture implies otherwise when it uses the same term to refer to humanity and animals). They don’t need salvation and surely no thinking person would exclude beings not requiring salvation? Otherwise God and the angels both would need to be excluded from Heaven! Such arguments belong in File 13.

Absolutely! I believe my family will be waiting for me when I get to Heaven and I hope that my precious animals will be there too.

I am an artist, dog portraits mostly. I have a painting in my mind that I have not done yet. I plan on going back through all the photos of my many, many animals who have died and painting them all on the steps of a big house.

I am sure someone has done this already, it is hard to come up with something completely original but I have not seen a painting like that.