DEAR DR. FOX: In some earlier columns, you have spoken about animals’ spirits and souls, but I am still confused, having been raised as a Christian. What is your opinion concerning animals having souls? Are theirs immortal like ours? -- R.M., Washington, D.C.

DEAR R.M.: I like this formula for soul-making: body plus mind plus spirit.

Theosophists contend animals have a group soul while ours are individuated, other animals achieving such individuation through our affection for them. I find that rather anthropocentric, and believe there is no clear distinction between spirit and soul.

The question of immortality for human and nonhuman spirits is in part answered by human instances of reincarnation, with some individuals recalling details of past lives. And some religious traditions embrace reincarnation, or the transmigration of the soul or spirit.

I embrace the Rev. Matthew Fox’s (no relation) view that it is by way of our empathic connections with other sentient beings -- human and nonhuman -- that we, like God, suffer and love. Sometimes we must “play God” and euthanize animals, a role I never find easy as a veterinarian, to stop intractable suffering in the terminally ill or injured.

In the Hindu religion, such actions violate the principle of ahimsa (non-harming), which makes the perpetrator spiritually impure. So ahimsa trumps compassionate action, and animals are left to suffer -- especially “sacred” cows, as I learned working in India at my wife Deanna Krantz’s animal refuge. (See our book “India’s Animals: Helping the Sacred and the Suffering.”)

In my view, playing God in other ways, such as gene-editing and cloning of animals primarily for human benefit, is another turn of the screw of unbridled domination and exploitation. Therefore, I find these actions bioethically unacceptable when they are of no medical benefit to the animals.

What happens to souls and spirits with cloning? Identical human twins are “clones” in a way, and they are certainly individual souls.

There are more questions than answers on so many levels of inquiry. Some secularists decry any god who would make parasites, pathogens and predators, while materialists have no regard for the sanctity of life or for animals’ rights, and have created a reality devoid of anything sacred beyond the ethos of mammon.

DEAR DR. FOX: Upon reading your article on life after death for our pets, I feel compelled to share my story of my beloved cat, Coco.

Coco was a rescue from a local shelter. She was an adult tortoiseshell, and I got her as a companion to my calico, Versace. The two never got along, so when Versace passed, Coco was much happier and we got very close. She died of heart failure at age 15 and I was crushed. I still have her photo at my bedside.

I live alone, and the first time I felt Coco walking on my bed, I thought I must have been dreaming. But it happens regularly in the middle of the night. One evening, I actually felt her jump on my pillow above my head!

It makes me happy to know she likes to visit. -- D.M., West Palm Beach, Florida

DEAR D.M.: Some readers will think that you were hallucinating in bed, and that your experience of feeling your cat jump on the bed and come onto your pillow was simply a conditioned response from your brain’s memory of your cat doing this every evening when alive. But skeptics should be convinced by the many reports of this kind of metaphysical phenomenon posted on my website in the article “New Evidence of Life After Life.”

One dramatic clincher, detailed in my book “Cat Body, Cat Mind,” was about a couple who moved into a house and didn’t own any cats. But many evenings, they both felt something catlike jumping onto their bed. They made inquiries and found out that the previous owner did, indeed, have a cat who had passed on in the home they’d purchased. Having lived with and known cats before, they accepted and welcomed the unseen night visitor.

EARWAX REVEALS HOW HUMAN ACTIVITY AFFECTS WHALE HEALTH

Huge earwax plugs from dead whales are held in museum collections around the world, and scientists studying those plugs have pieced together a picture of how human activity has affected whales.

The research, published in Nature Communications, showed that cortisol levels fell after hunting restrictions were imposed, rose during World War II, and have risen rapidly since 1990. (National Geographic online, Nov. 15)

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxVet.net.)

PETCO announced on Nov. 13 that it is making a commitment not to sell dog and cat food and treats with artificial colors, flavors or preservatives -- making it the first and only major retailer of pet food to take a stand against such ingredients. The company will start removing products that don’t meet its new standards in January, and complete the process by May. Learn more at petco.com/betternutrition.

I agree with Susan Thixton, pet food industry monitor and advocate of good nutrition for companion animals, who says: “This is a long-overdue small step in the right direction. Hopefully it will encourage the pet food industry to take the next big step with manufactured cat and dog foods and treats, and use more human food-grade ingredients rather than those condemned for human consumption.”

DEAR DR. FOX: There is a subject that I would like to see you address: the declawing of cats.

I am a dog person who has been “adopted” by several cats through the years, and I’ve learned to live with my cat allergies. When they show up, I take them to the veterinarian to get them shots and neutered, then they return to my home. Some are inside, some are outside, etc.

I have a friend who wants a cat (for indoors) and I offered a sweet, young cat; but when she said she was going to have it declawed, I declined to offer it to her. I don’t think any piece of furniture is worth putting a little animal through that. I find it very inhumane. Am I wrong?

Scratching posts and the like, treated with spray catnip occasionally, work for me. -- V.N., Saluda, North Carolina

DEAR V.N.: Some readers think I do not love or respect cats because I am vehemently opposed to the widespread practice of trapping, neutering, vaccinating against rabies and releasing them (TNVR) to fend for themselves. But I have great affection and respect for cats, and that includes rescuing strays and opposing declawing at every opportunity. I am no less opposed to the routine declawing of cats by veterinarians who are pandering to clients, and who do not first insist on trying the kinds of alternatives that you suggest.

Many cats suffer their entire lives from various adverse consequences of this mutilation. People who truly love and respect their cats, and who understand their needs, would never dream of having their claws removed. Some indoor cats, like mine, do need to have their claws trimmed routinely if they overgrow, and it is a good practice when petting cats to get them used to having their paws massaged. They come to enjoy this, and in my experience, it makes nail-trimming a breeze. Fractious cats can simply be restrained on one’s lap wrapped in a towel.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxVet.net.)

On Nov. 16, members of the House of Representatives, including Minnesota’s soon-to-be governor Tim Walz, passed bill HR 6784, the “Manage Our Wolves Act.” If passed in the Senate, the bill will allow states to return to wolf trophy hunting and trapping, and remove any opportunity for judicial review, which is a dangerous precedent.

Ceding federal protection under the Endangered Species Act to state wildlife management has long been opposed by scientists, conservationists and a large public constituency of wildlife protectors. The livestock sector that supports wolf eradication is now recognized as one of the world’s major contributors to climate change and loss of biodiversity.

Wolves need to be protected, and their numbers increased, so that the whitetail deer overpopulation and related health problems can be rectified. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) in whitetail deer and other ungulates is spreading across the United States. Not yet known to be transmitted to livestock and people (but being similar to the mad cow disease that decimated the U.K. cattle industry and infected many people with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease), CWD is a problem that will persist, since vegetation becomes contaminated with infective pathogenic agents in the soil from infected deer.

While deer ranches can be one source of infection, seeking to manage a large deer population for recreational hunting (essentially wildlife farming) -- coupled with predator control, especially of wolves -- creates the perfect storm for the spread of CWD. Tuberculosis in deer, transmissible to cattle, follows a similar pattern.

As Michigan State University veterinary epidemiology professor Paul Bartlett opines, “My conclusion a long time ago was that if you raise deer like feedlot cattle, they’re going to get a feedlot cattle disease.”

Surely it is time for state and federal wildlife agencies to implement ecologically sound wildlife management practices that improve deer health by maximizing natural biodiversity. This must include protection of wolves and other predators, and not rely on human predation for a few weeks of hunting every year during the breeding season to limit deer population densities. Allowing the hunting and trapping of wolves will only make matters worse.

DEAR DR. FOX: We have a 14-year-old male neutered shorthair cat.

He vomits, usually in the morning after feeding (he eats Friskies Indoor Pate/Salmon or White Fish, plus IAMS Protective Health Indoor Chicken Dry). We feed him small amounts, but he still vomits two to three times per week, ever since we adopted him four years ago. We don’t know if he had this problem before we got him.

We use well water, if that’s relevant. Our vet did all the usual tests to discover his problem, to no avail. -- B.F., Washington, D.C.

DEAR B.F.: This is a common problem in cats, and has various causes, the three most prevalent ones being: eating too fast, fur-balls in the stomach and food ingredient intolerance/allergy.

Some detective work is necessary. Also, in older cats who suddenly start vomiting on a regular basis, a full wellness exam is called for to assess possible intestinal cancer (lymphoma), chronic kidney disease or dental problems.

There are frozen and freeze-dried cat foods now on the market that contain no synthetic additives. These may be worth trying out on your cat, as well as my home-prepared recipe (posted on my website).

DEAR DR. FOX: My 7-year-old Yorkie is basically potty-trained, but she frequently “marks” against the cat.

Can you tell me how to break her of this annoying habit? The dog urinates or has bowel movements at various spots on floors or carpets. She knows very well where she is supposed to go, because all I have to say is “go to your potty pad” and she hightails it to the correct spot. A friend tells me that she is “marking her territory.”

She and the cat do not fight, but the dog is obviously jealous of the time and attention I give to the cat. -- J.S., Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

DEAR J.S.: I do not interpret this as “territorial” behavior, but rather attention-seeking. That’s assuming your dog checks out physically healthy: no constipation, inflammatory bowel syndrome or cystitis.

She is rather young to develop dementia, so I think you are right that there is jealousy going on. Ignore any and all protest/attention-seeking evacuations, and give equal time to both cat and dog as best you can.

Whenever I start grooming our cat, our dog comes between me and the cat, demanding to be groomed. And on more than one occasion, while grooming the dog, the cat has appeared from another room and flopped over to be groomed, giving me the impression not of jealousy but of psychic remote-sensing.

CRUELTY AT ANIMAL SHELTERS RAMPANT

Several animal shelters all over the country are hoarding rescued and relinquished cats and dogs under the most atrocious conditions without proper care or veterinary treatment.

All animal shelters should be registered, licensed and regularly inspected, without notice, by responsible municipal authorities, beginning with trained police officers and animal care veterinary technicians. For more details, visit peta.org.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxVet.net.)