The great theologian and author C.S. Lewis says that our animal companions may well be a part of our heavenly reward if we have formed a genuine relationship with them of caring and mutuality. His logic is simply that our ties to animals are unique relationships that possibly cannot be supplied in any other way. Fanciful as this thought may be, we may safely expect to be surprised by many things about the Next Life.
— William Cleary, The Lively Garden Prayer Book