‘Pawprints on my heart’: When bonding with a pet becomes a religious experience

[Anonymous]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/08/us/pets-religious-experience-blake-cec

I actually think this is what many people experience when a pet passes away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/08/us/pets-religious-experience-blake-cec

I actually think this is what many people experience when a pet passes away.

A subscription is needed to read the article. Could you just tell us what many people experience?

[Anonymous]

The growing number of people who’ve found that bonding with their pets becomes a spiritual experience.

We are in the middle of the Great Pet Awakening — a surge of people who say that owning a pet is a religious experience. In a post-pandemic era when many people still live in isolation, more pet owners are saying their furry friends are not mere companions. They are “partners in a spiritual journey,” according to David Michie, an author and Buddhist commentator.

More people are publicly sharing how owning a pet led them to develop spiritual habits traditionally taught by religion. Pets, they say, teach them about forgiveness and the importance of fellowshipping with others. Pets also embody grace — they accept humans as they are.

What happens to our pets when they die?
Pets also prompt many of their owners to confront a heavy theological question: Does Fido have a soul?

It’s common for pet owners to ask online forums what happens to their pets when they die. That curiosity has spawned a new literary genre: pet psychics who assure people that yes, “some angels choose furs over feathers.”

Books such as “Yes, Pets Do Go to Heaven” and “The Amazing Afterlife of Animals” assure people that their departed now frolic in celestial meadows. Some psychics offer pet owners even more consolation: a chance to hear personalized messages from their pets in the Great Beyond.

(from the article)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The growing number of people who’ve found that bonding with their pets becomes a spiritual experience.

We are in the middle of the Great Pet Awakening — a surge of people who say that owning a pet is a religious experience. In a post-pandemic era when many people still live in isolation, more pet owners are saying their furry friends are not mere companions. They are “partners in a spiritual journey,” according to David Michie, an author and Buddhist commentator.

More people are publicly sharing how owning a pet led them to develop spiritual habits traditionally taught by religion. Pets, they say, teach them about forgiveness and the importance of fellowshipping with others. Pets also embody grace — they accept humans as they are.

What happens to our pets when they die?
Pets also prompt many of their owners to confront a heavy theological question: Does Fido have a soul?

It’s common for pet owners to ask online forums what happens to their pets when they die. That curiosity has spawned a new literary genre: pet psychics who assure people that yes, “some angels choose furs over feathers.”

Books such as “Yes, Pets Do Go to Heaven” and “The Amazing Afterlife of Animals” assure people that their departed now frolic in celestial meadows. Some psychics offer pet owners even more consolation: a chance to hear personalized messages from their pets in the Great Beyond.

(from the article)

What a waste of time that is! When I was religious, clergy sadly said that pets couldn't go to heaven - or hell, because they weren't smart enough to sin.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like a growing number of people need to learn to bond with humans and be productive members of society. You crave a bond? Be a foster parent. Make friendships with residents at a retirement home who have no family nearby. Plenty of ways to form meaningful bonds and please God besides navel gazing about yourself and your dog. If you believe your dog is the only one who forgives your sins, then maybe focus on your sins and why humans refuse to forgive you for them and how you can change for the better

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/08/us/pets-religious-experience-blake-cec

I actually think this is what many people experience when a pet passes away.

A subscription is needed to read the article. Could you just tell us what many people experience?

IYKYK

https://lite.cnn.com/2025/06/08/us/pets-religious-experience-blake-cec

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like a growing number of people need to learn to bond with humans and be productive members of society. You crave a bond? Be a foster parent. Make friendships with residents at a retirement home who have no family nearby. Plenty of ways to form meaningful bonds and please God besides navel gazing about yourself and your dog. If you believe your dog is the only one who forgives your sins, then maybe focus on your sins and why humans refuse to forgive you for them and how you can change for the better

This sounds like something Jesus would say.

[Anonymous]

Like Ann Lamott has said, "Dogs are the closest we come to knowing the divine love of God on this side of eternity."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like a growing number of people need to learn to bond with humans and be productive members of society. You crave a bond? Be a foster parent. Make friendships with residents at a retirement home who have no family nearby. Plenty of ways to form meaningful bonds and please God besides navel gazing about yourself and your dog. If you believe your dog is the only one who forgives your sins, then maybe focus on your sins and why humans refuse to forgive you for them and how you can change for the better

Some people have experienced trauma and abuse and distrust other people.

They feel safe and loved with their pets.

You are fortunate you have never been betrayed and hurt so badly you only trust your pet.

[Anonymous]

“What Lewis was suggesting here was that humans are able to impart onto domestic animals a certain part of his or her self. “And in this way it seems to me possible that certain animals may have an immortality, not in themselves, but in the immortality of their masters,” he concluded.“

CS Lewis thought that our pets could perhaps get to heaven because we give them part of us, and are an important part of our faith.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“What Lewis was suggesting here was that humans are able to impart onto domestic animals a certain part of his or her self. “And in this way it seems to me possible that certain animals may have an immortality, not in themselves, but in the immortality of their masters,” he concluded.“

CS Lewis thought that our pets could perhaps get to heaven because we give them part of us, and are an important part of our faith.

https://jjmilt.substack.com/p/cs-lewis-on-whether-animals-can-go

^link to article discussing this topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like a growing number of people need to learn to bond with humans and be productive members of society. You crave a bond? Be a foster parent. Make friendships with residents at a retirement home who have no family nearby. Plenty of ways to form meaningful bonds and please God besides navel gazing about yourself and your dog. If you believe your dog is the only one who forgives your sins, then maybe focus on your sins and why humans refuse to forgive you for them and how you can change for the better

Some people have experienced trauma and abuse and distrust other people.

They feel safe and loved with their pets.

You are fortunate you have never been betrayed and hurt so badly you only trust your pet.

And anyone is very unfortunate if they only can trust their pet - a totally subservient being who can't talk back and depends on you for its food and shelter.