Dog is my co-pilot

The Denver Post reports a story that will come as a surprise to no one who’s shared his/her life with a four-foot companion: dogs have souls.

Well, duh.

Dogs are full of natural goodness and have rich emotional lives, according to an animal behaviorist at the University of Colorado. Marc Bekoff encapsulates his findings, “[W]e’re not alone in having a nuanced moral system.” They know their lives are interrelated with their humans’ and they focus on us to make that relationship work.

There’s more: empathy and morality aren’t uniquely human characteristics.

(Actually, there are times when I think morality is distinctly not a human trait. But that’s a different post.)

Bekoff reports that animals can and do distinguish between right and wrong. Dogs have rules of play and cheats find themselves ostracized.

Findings such as Bekoff’s, and investigations at Harvard’s Canine Cognition Laboratory are stimulating new discussions among theologians. In the world of western religion, it’s long been the accepted “knowledge” that animals don’t have the requisite capabilities of belief and rationalization to possess human-like souls.

(Assumption being that humanlike souls are the gold standard.)

Bekoff has found that dogs have a sense of fair play; they make friends; they modify their behavior to meet the needs of their friends. They recognize unfairness, and it makes them unhappy. They grieve and they hope.

What they don’t do is scheme, torture, backstab or abandon their young.

What’s not to admire in these characteristics? Why would the Supreme Being not have endowed these creatures with souls?

Tom Ricks, who covered the military for the WSJ and the Washington Post for many years and is now senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, asks the real question. Do dogs think people have souls?

Now, all this hoo-hah is about dogs, but that’s because they’re easiest to observe—they’re around us. I myself have witnessed affection, play, concern, sullenness, guilt—in short, a whole range of emotions and behaviors—in cats who’ve graciously deigned to allow me to minister to them.

Whether I had them for 53 days or 17 years, every one had something to teach me. Don’t take things personally. Try everything once. A cuddle and a purr can make most things better. You have the right to be loved for what you are, not what you do. Sevruga caviare isn’t just for humans and if you snake one paw up from under the coffee table you might not be noticed snatching the Scottish smoked salmon. Be persistent. Don’t be in the moment—own it.

Sadly, there are way too many people in this world who think animals are here for their amusement and to be objects of their cruelty. I confess that every time I see one of those Sarah McLachlan SPCA commercials I can barely manage to look and I want nothing so much as a high-powered M40A3 with a really good scope and a crate of .338 Lapua Magnum cartridges. Ditto those commercials for the Humane Society.

You can’t tell me that creatures that would inflict such suffering on other living beings have souls.

Regardless of which species are stamped with the soul-of-approval, if you’ve read all the way to the end of this post, do one more thing: go to the Animal Rescue site and click on the button to donate food to shelters. Your click will give sustenance to one of those incarcerated critters waiting to share morality and cognition with a human.