Yes, Pope Francis, dogs do belong in heaven -- but not cats

Pope Francis is absolutely right, dogs will go to heaven when they die, they are part of God’s creatures.

In his weekly address yesterday, he comforted a young boy whose dog had just died by telling him, "One day, we will see our animals again in the eternity of Christ. Paradise is open to all of God's creatures."

Dogs yes, but not cats.

I once had a dog named Pub Spy who was called after a famous Irish column in the Sunday World newspaper.

Pub Spy looked like a glass of Guinness, white on the body but black around the head, he was some sort of mutt we adopted from a family shelter.

He was Catholic in his tastes like all dogs. He loved a stroll on the beach, a game of fetch, the occasional snooze on my lap.

If you mentioned the word cats he’d go berserk.

He showed good judgment.

He ran away once and was captured by some hoods who saw his owner’s tag with my phone number and wanted a ransom to get him back.

I gladly paid.

If he had been a cat I’d have said keep going brother you can keep him.

He was afraid of storms and would howl at the slightest roll of thunder. The cowardly lion had nothing on him.

He was constantly looking for a friend of the female persuasion and I never had the heart to geld him.

Eventually on one of his romantic forays he disappeared for good and all the posters and dog lost signs did not help. I’d like to think he met the canine companion of his dreams and they moved to Florida.

I’d rather see him in heaven than about 90 per cent of the people on this earth I know.

Then there are cats.I had one when I was small. His name was Trixie. He was a selfish arrogant, uncaring feline who wanted his and to hell with everyone else.

He didn't run away unfortunately but stayed with me to a rare old age.

Selfish to the end he never said goodbye but just keeled over in my backyard.

We even had a funeral.

Come to think of it he was black and white too, but there the resemblance ended.

As for papal prognostications I’m with Pope Francis, dogs belong in heaven.

I think cats should settle for limbo or grow some empathy genes.