“Friends of mine whose beloved female black pet cat died a year ago tell me that they and visitors still catch glimpses of it roaming their home.”
I “saw” two of my cats after they were gone. I know I didn’t, but thought I did. Grief can do strange things.
Have rarely cried over the loss of a person, but still cry about my pets, even those we lost as far back as 25 years.
The affection that pets have for us has simplicity and sincerity. I have seen pets show jealousy if another person or pet gets attention and they do not. They also show hurt feelings if they feel they have been let down by someone's absence for a week or more. What pets want most of all is to be close and to enjoy affection and assurance from us -- just as we want the same from them.
If, as Christian faith confides in us, the human soul and the love we have for other people endures past death, then why should the same not also be true of the love between us and our pets? Since pets help us to express our human capacity to love and care for others, then why should that aspect of ourselves be absent in the afterlife? Or at least we can hope that is so, that the human soul may transform and draw the souls of our beloved animal companions along with us into eternity.