Recently on an ABC Nightly News broadcast, news anchor, Peter Jennings, said that with their partner, beliefnet.com, ABC News had polled visitors to the Web site. They'd asked the question: Do animals go to heaven? To their surprise, this poll received a tremendous response. 47 percent of people, who live with pets, think they will meet the animal in heaven.

We were surprised and delighted, as Jennings led into the segment about the debate over whether or not animals have souls, when the camera panned a set of books on the subject. Our book, Angel Animals, Exploring Our Spiritual Connection with Animals, was included.

This news that so many people see animals as souls was pretty exciting. What felt sad to us, though, was the fact that 53 percent can look into the eyes of an animal in their home and not see a soul there. That's pretty amazing, as far as we're concerned.

So for those of you who already recognize the spiritual nature of animals, we're asking you to consider another aspect of the soul. We've observed that in addition to transcending death of the physical body, as souls, animals also make choices. Because free will is a characteristic of the soul, animals also have free will.

Even though their bodies are constrained, you'll see animals definitely making decisions. They show us what they want, prefer, and like or dislike. Animals may not always be able to exercise free will, just as humans can't do or have everything they want, but free will exists in the souls of animals as surely as immortality does.

The following story offer an example that might cause you to notice animals using their free will.

Don't Duck When Someone Asks for Help

Reuters Wire Service recently ran a story about a duck in Vancouver, British Columbia, who knew what to do when she needed help and set about doing it with great panache.

Imagine being a police officer, minding your own business, walking you beat down the neighborhood street, when you feel a tug on your pant's leg. You look down and see a duck!

That's what happened to Officer Ray Peterson. At first, he pushed the duck away, but she kept pulling on his trousers. Each time the duck got his attention, she'd waddle over to a sewer grate and stare at him as if to say, "Aren't you going to be just the least bit helpful?"

Finally Officer Peterson followed the duck. When he looked down the grate, he saw the mother's eight little ducklings. They evidently had fallen into the sewer and were bobbing around on top of the water.

To the rescue, the kindly cop called a tow truck, which helped to pull away the heavy metal grate. Armed with a vegetable strainer (instead of a pistol), he rescued the babies and returned them to their mother. The mother and her adventurous children then waddled away to swim in the much safer pond nearby.

Thanks and quacks to you, Officer Peterson. And thanks to a mother duck who made the choice of who should save her baby ducks from drowning.