Still Recovering From The Rigors of the Dog Search

Yesterday's run away dog episode with all its many vicissitudes reminded me of the kerfuffle over the New York Times misquoting Pope Francis about all dogs going to heaven and the fuss it caused among traditionalists who hold that animals don't have souls.  Actually, Pope Francis didn't say that, it was Paul VI who more or less said that to comfort a child whose dog had died,

 “One day we will see our animals in the eternity of Christ.”

I don't know why the idea that animals had no souls came about, the word "animal" implies that they have soul anima.   I can't, offhand, think of any scripture which denies that animals have souls.  That passage from Isaiah I noted last week certainly implies that animals, not just pets, will be in the Kingdom of God.

Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
The calf and the young lion shall browse together,
with a little child to guide them.
The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,
together their young shall rest;
the lion shall eat hay like the ox.
The baby shall play by the cobra’s den,
and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.
There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD,
as water covers the sea.

Despite the joke Woody Allen made about "the lamb won't get much sleep" .Isaiah obviously wasn't talking about animals that needed to eat each other, though they apparently will all be vegetarians. So plants will also be a in heaven.  Or whatever Isaiah envisioned.   And elsewhere in the same book he said,

Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together;

He didn't specify human beings.

Looking at the book of Isaiah I think it's quite a useful book for the political upheavals we are at risk of experiencing, considering the risings and falling of kings, invasions, etc. his prophesies concern. His religious criticism of the highest level of the religious establishment and The Temple as well as the political rulers is always worth thinking about.   There's a reason Isaiah was quoted by the most radical of all prophets, Jesus.

I don't think I've ever known a dog who wasn't the moral superior of many of the people I know, I've never known a dog as mean and base as, perhaps, most of the people I observe.   I remember that when I was a kid and found out what this word that got thrown around "bitch" meant that I couldn't understand why it was used in a derogatory way to refer to women, female dogs being in nothing like that.  It had more to do with people who devalued dogs as they did all animals, I'd guess.   If anyone deserved to be excluded on the basis of species, it would be ours.

My old dog is just fine today.  Wherever he went while he was missing, it doesn't seem to have caused any lasting damage.  I suppose I'll get over it, even the horrendous blisters I got from walking several miles with the wrong socks on.  If you ever have to go on a search like that, remember to take the two minutes it would take to put on the right foot gear.

Update:  I don't care what Steve and the Eschatots say.  They are the ever dwindling number of people who still go to Duncan's blog to hang out, as I was reminded again last week, the grownups who used to go there stopped going.  Some of them write better stuff than Duncan ever wrote and say things that are more important and interesting than anything that gets said there today.  It's a source of pocket change for Duncan, that's obvious from the amount of effort he doesn't put into it.  I'm surprised a few of them are willing to put up with the coercion to not say what they want to say by the enforcers of the house ideology.  It is it of no political importance.

Update 2:  It would be easier to come up with a list of the few adults who still go there on anything like a regular basis, Derbes, Grommit, Um..... I suppose Moe when he's talking about what he knows, what's going on around Halifax.  Maybe a few others are part time adults.    When I had occasion to look at some of the comment threads from a couple of years ago there were many names of regulars which have disappeared, not including the ones who Duncan has banned.

I haven't looked lately, how many times has Duncan begged his regulars to buy stuff from Jeff Bezos' sweat shop so he can get some pocket change?   He calls it "Bezos' money" well, it certainly isn't money he's paying to the peons who work in his awful warehouses instead of sending it to the rent boys who shill for him.