Animals souls in the HP world

[Veronica]

No: HPFGUIDX 45063

I did see this in some previous posts (back in June, before I 
joined), but it was just barely touched, so I thought I would try one 
more time.

I'm really curious about animals' souls in the HP universe. (For 
clairification, when I say soul in this instance, I am referring both 
to a kind of consciousness of the world around them and an ability to 
feel pain and suffer, or even to show human-like emotions.)

Some animals seem to have souls in this magical world: 
* Hedwig has a great deal of personality in her interaction with 
Harry. She can be loving, angry, proud, or insulted. She shows both 
affection and anger, just to name a few of the emotions JKR has 
associated with this owl.
* Crookshanks shows great awareness of his(?) surroundings, 
communicates with Sirius as a dog, and even seems capable of 
deductive reasoning. Yes, this might be because it is part Kneazle, 
but regardless, it is showing what I call a soul.
* Fawkes, too, seems able to take it his surroundings and react in a 
very "thoughful" way. (His actions in the Chamber seem far more like 
consciousness than instinct--especially when "healing" Harry.)
* Snakes are capable of verbal communication, specifically the boa 
who was able to carry on a conversation with Harry.


Other animals seem slighly aware, though not as aware as the previous 
examples. These would be critters as we are used to them in our world-
-aware, but not as capable of advanced reasoning like the previous 
examples:
* Buckbeak's ability to be offended, though unable to understand the 
concept of escaping and hiding.
* Pig shows joy and excitement, though he does not seem 
as "emotional" as Hedwig. In fact, Pig seems like a hyperactive child.


Finally, we have a few occassions where animals are retreated rather 
coldly--as though they have no soul. This is basically concerning 
animals used in relation to transfiguration:
* Cedric turned the rock into a dog for the sake of distracting the 
dragon during the first task, but was anyone concerned for this dog 
being offered up as a sacrifice to the dragon?


Here are the two things I am specifically wondering:

1. Why do some animals have *more* soul than others?

2. (And this is a little weird I suppose) What happens with animals' 
souls during transformations? 

* Animals are created from inanimate objects--do they get a soul in 
the process? If the previously mentioned dog was not killed by the 
dragon (we don't know what happened to it), would it have had a soul?
* And what about animals that are transformed INTO inanimate objects? 
What happens to the souls of turtles turned into teapots or hedgehog 
(was it hedgehogs?) turned into pincushions?

It was previously suggested that during transfiguration, an item 
remains what it previously was -- a table that becomes a pig is still 
really a table (no soul). That makes sense if you believe the other 
theory that transfiguration is only temporary, but I'm not sure about 
that? 

Didn't Hermione use the buttons she created from beetles? Is there 
any evidence that a transformation is only a temporary change?

If transfiguration is NOT temporary, do created animals have no soul? 
Do the soul's of transfigured animals remain captive in inanimate 
objects?

Anyway, this is something I have wondered about, and I wondered if 
anyone else had considered it.

Veronica