(((((((( Sandy)))))))) I'm glad your husband did what had to be done. Dexter is the better for it, out there now playing with all the others gone before.
I was raised to be a strict, Biblical literalist, taught that only humans have souls and that heaven is some sort of solid gold brick with niches where people stand for eternity singing hymns. Ok, that's how I interpreted what I was taught. It seemed cold and boring and I was not that anxious to sign up for the ride, only you should have heard how they described the alternative! ( ! ! ! ! )
But I grew up and lived a good bit and read a good bit and learned that there were more ways to pray and worship than the folks back at the Austin Avenue Baptist Church ever dreamed. I found that I could not believe in God without also believing that these wonderful creatures who share our world are also sharing wherever heaven is. Of course dogs have souls (and kitties too, LOL) and heaven is more alive than we can imagine. Having created birds, how could the Creator live without them all around? So, knowing how much we would need comfort and love, the Creator gave us dogs and cats and rabbits and birds and .....all the rest. But especially dogs and kitties, I think. Because these are the ones we are drawn to, and the ones that seek us out. Of course She sent us her most precious creations, and clearly knew just what love would come to be between us. And I think that She made their spans here with us short deliberately, knowing that love grows best when it endures the hardest test and that our human hearts, selfish as we tend to be, would need both the laughter and the tears to grow tender enough to hear the whisperings of a Creator who comes to us on a summer breeze, wrapped in autumn colors, speaking to us in the silence of winter's snow fall.
Do dogs have souls? Of course. And I won't be a bit surprised if one day I look up to see Rolly and Sadie and Tashi and Angus coming to take me Home, but coming on the wings of the angels they are.
Love and comfort, Sunny