I'm not usually a superstitious or spiritual guy, but I do think there's some intangible thing that I guess we could call a "soul" that inhabits humans and, to varying extents, lesser species. Dogs just seem *purpose built* for us. They've literally been the most important animal to seeing us through the 200,000ish years of us pushing forward to eventually go to the stars. All because humans, all over the world, accepted doggos. It's amazing when you think of it with that zoomed out perspective. Also, many powerful people have had pets that greatly influenced their character or decisions in life. Nero had his Senator Horse. Nobles had hounds and such- you think a normally kind and generous lord would be the same on the morning when he found out his favorite doggo passed? No, he's going to be pissed and sad... and may make decisions based on this. All for doge.