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“Hmmmm...that’s a good question that, quite frankly, I’ve never thought about.”

Its worth thinking about in terms of a creation perfect by “nature” having become distorted after the Fall by man’s sinfulness. What does this say about the purpose and meaning of the Incarnation and “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.”?

All creation is to be perfected as it was created in perfection. Like with so much of what we as Christians believe, it gets back to man’s sinfulness, man’s failure to “hit the mark” and fulfill his created purpose which is to be like God.

...and fulfill his created purpose which is to be like God.

This is a comment that has come up a number of times and I'm puzzled by this. Do you believe man's created purpose is to become like God the Son or like God the Father?

BTW-Animals are distinctly different than man. While there may be a case for them "lying down with each other" in a perfect world, they do not possess a soul.

There is a slight bit of evidence that while Adam and Eve were living, the plants and animals around them were subject to death. After all, Adam was told that in the day that he would eat of the fruit he would die. So he must have had an understanding about dead. Likewise, we find this passage in Ecclesiates:

Ecc 3:19-20 For that which happens to the sons of men also happens to beasts, even one thing happens to them. As this one dies, so that one dies; yea, they all have one breath; so that a man has no advantage over a beast; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all return to dust again.

Please note this was the sentence carried out on Adam, to return to the dust. While this is very scant evidence, it does suggest that animals died and returned to dust all the while Adam and Eve was living. Man was uniquely different from animals before the fall. It is difficult to say what animals were like prior to the fall.