Why would we need them. Wouldn’t the happiness of being with God far outshine any happiness of having a pet.
I think we are thinking as earthlings on this and not as God thinks.
I think we are thinking as earthlings on this and not as God thinks.
You assume they would be there to suit us. I don't assume that at all. God created animals, He blessed them, and they please Him.
Animals exist for a reason, though we may not now know what all of the reason is. God could have just as easily not made them, but He did and they are exactly as He planned them to be, down to the finest detail.
Genesis:
And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.”23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
In light of the fact that they exist because of Him, and we know that they please Him, and that He blesses them, why would He exclude them from Heaven?
It's not necessarily what we want or need, but what God wants, or sees fit to have.