R.I.P Alfie

After returning home from dropping kids at school and a luxurious coffee break with friends (at a funky coffee shop, the only one of its kind in this small town, that rumour claims is about to be closed) I was greeted by the guys working on our roof.  Sitting down for a brief ciggie break one of them looked somewhat forlorn upon eyeing me sauntering up the driveway.

"Ummm..." he said between drags, "I poked your guinea pig and it's not moving.  I poked it a few times.  Pretty sure that thing is a goner."

"He could be sleeping," I suggested, as sometimes when the guinea pigs snooze their angled clumps of fur appear sinister and lifeless.

"Nope, don't think so," he assured me.  "Poked it lots and pretty sure that guy's a goner."

Having spent the last couple of days once more in their outdoor habitat (after a few forgotten mishaps of them left to fend for themselves in Jeff's outdoor wood and mesh  "contraption" during a thunderstorm that left pools deep enough for them to swim in several spots of the "cage") they had last been observed feasting on fresh grass.



No more feasting for Cocoa...grass blades framed his considerably stiff body with its wide, glassy eyes staring off in that odd, empty way that accompanies death.  His pal Pinkie (named so due to violet red eyes which make him look as though he continually suffers from pink eye) nudged him, sadly, as though completely confused by this uncommon prostate stance.

Nicknamed "Alf" first by my sister-in-law because his hair, the same shade as this alien TV creature, Cocoa had so many cowlicks that they tightly sprang and romped his coiffure in every direction.  Cute.  And still cute even when wrapped in an old beach towel awaiting the kids' return home for a probable burial.

Our first pet burial.

I wonder how they will take it?  Being fairly impartial myself (I would be a mess if it was our cat-who-thinks-he's-a-dog Addy but I am inexplicably less attached to these fellows) I don't know what questions will arise.

What if they ask if he's gone to heaven?  DO animals go to heaven?

I know that our miscarried children will be there waiting (many scriptures to support this - a great book for explanation and support is John MacArthur's Safe in the arms of God) but what about our pets?

According to Jack Wellman on the site "What Christians Want to Know" the answer is yes.  A couple of the scriptures he offers are from Ecclesiastes and Luke.  I guess we will only truly find out the answer when we get there...

Ecclesiastes 3:18-21: ““As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath (literally “spirit“); humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

Luke 12:6 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.”

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/do-animals-or-pets-go-to-heaven-a-biblical-analysis/#ixzz26GpQjro3