The bonds we form with our pet cats are something unique. We consider pet cats as family members, and we treat the death of our pet as the death of a family member. Understandably, we think about the afterlife of our cats and ask ourselves: Where do they go when they die?
Most spiritual and religious people believe that cats have an afterlife. It depends on the religion the person is and their personal beliefs. One popular belief is reincarnation, the cat’s spirit is reborn into a new body. Most Christians believe that the cat’s spirit goes to heaven to live an eternal life.
Spirituality is something that can help when dealing with the death of a loved one. The afterlife can give meaning to the death of your cat. Here, we’ll go through the most common beliefs about the afterlife of pets.
What Happens After Your Cat Dies
After your cat dies, you need to figure out what to do with the body. In other words, you need to arrange a funeral. Most pet owners choose to bury or cremate their cats.
Cat burials are the most common way to put the cat’s body to rest. Cat owners like to find a special place and dig a grave there. They like to visit the cat’s grave and reminisce about the good times they had together.
In Christianity, we see a lot of people burying their cats next to the graves of family members. This is their way of remembering the cat and dealing with its death.
Cat owners also often cremate their cats. Cremation is an alternative to burials. After your cat dies, you can cremate so later you can perform the ritual of spilling the ashes. Another good way to remember your cat. You can find a place that’s special to your cat and pour the ashes there.
Although arranging a nice funeral for your cat can help you during this hard time, you want to know what’s happens after that.
Do Cats Go To The Afterlife
It goes without saying that only spiritual people can believe in the afterlife. If there are readers that do not believe in it, understandably so. No one can know and prove what is the right belief. Spirituality is a personal experience, so feel free to believe what you like as long as it makes you feel better.
Heaven
One of the most popular afterlife concepts is heaven. A place where the spirit can rest and live an eternal life after death on Earth. This is mostly a concept attributed to Christianity.
In The Bible, it’s not specifically stated that animals go to heaven.
In fact, there are some notions that animals do not go to heaven at all. However, Pope John Paul II and Pope Paul IV confirmed that animals and pets have a soul that we can later meet in Heaven. [Source]
You don’t have to be a Christian to believe in Heaven. Nor do you have to accept the heaven Christians believe. A lot of other religions also have a concept of Heaven or an afterlife. These details vary from religion to religion and from sect to sect.
Eternal Afterlife
As you may know, cats were a deity in Egyptian culture. Ancient Egyptians worshipped cats and considered them to be royalties. They had a really complicated concept of the afterlife. To put it simply, they believed that there is an eternal afterlife.
But they also believed that the spirit can’t live on without the body. And that’s why they mummified their dead. They also mummified their cats. In fact, some mummifications on cats were far more expensive than the ones for humans.
Reincarnation
We can’t find much about pets going to heaven but religions that believe in reincarnation clearly state that animals have an afterlife. Reincarnation is the belief that after death, the soul wanders for a while until it finds a new body.
After the cat dies, its soul is reincarnated into a new body. What the cat reincarnates into depends on its previous life. So, the cat will not necessarily be reborn into a cat again. It may take the body of another animal. [Source]
The point of reincarnation is to end the cycle of birth and death. The soul will not reincarnate each time it loses its body. The reincarnation cycle stops after the soul ascends the final cycle.
Hinduism and Buddhism are a few of the religions that believe in reincarnation. These religions state the soul of an animal will be reborn into another body. It is possible for the soul of a cat to be reborn into a human body.
Science
I find it necessary here to leave the opinion of scientists as well. If you ask a scientist: Where do cats go when they die? They will answer with: I don’t know. Although the science is able to find some definite answers about the world we live in, it still has no answer about whether there is an afterlife or not.
So, if you are inclined to believe what scientists say, you can still believe in an afterlife. Science does not negate nor does it confirm the existence of an afterlife.
Will I See My Cat In The Afterlife
Now, the question every cat owner asked themselves: Will I be able to see my cat again? Well, this depends on what you believe in. If you believe that there is heaven, you will be able to see your cat in heaven again.
If you believe in reincarnation, you won’t see your cat in the afterlife but you will see its soul again on Earth. This question is not something to obsess about, we don’t really know what comes after death. All we can do is wait and see.
[Related Article: 13 Valid Arguments Why Cats Are Better Than Dogs]
Related Questions And Other FAQs
Do Dead Cats Go To Heaven
The Bible doesn’t specifically say that cats go to heaven. However, Pope John Paul II stated that animals do have souls. And, Pope Paul IV confirmed that we will be able to see our pets in heaven again.
Do Cats Sense Death
Cats are instinctive creatures. They can sense when something is wrong with a loved one. Although they may not sense death they can sense when something is wrong. A cat may sense that a person is ill or unwell.
