Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Gary Kurz is a retired Coast Guard officer who served his country faithfully and honorably for over 30 years. He and his wife have a love for animals and a concern for others who share their love. He lives in Kansas. Visit his website at www.coldnosesbook.com.

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Cold Noses at the Pearly Gates

CITADEL PRESS

Contents

Foreword..............................................................................................................................................................................xiIntroduction..........................................................................................................................................................................11. Fact, Faith, and Findings A look at the principles used to research the topic of animal afterlife, how faith fits into the author's findings, and conclusions.....................112. Creature or Creation Brief synopsis of several views of how life began............................................................................................................213. Communicating Thought-provoking speculation on the ability of animals to communicate..............................................................................................494. Life Discussion of the levels of life and awareness...............................................................................................................................855. The Millennium Glimpse of the 1,000-year period where animals will live and behave as they were intended to.......................................................................1056. Examining Scripture Identification and analysis of all scripture pertinent to the study of an animal afterlife....................................................................1137. Answers to Commonly Asked Questions Detailed narrative to the most common questions asked about pet loss and pet afterlife........................................................1538. Some Final Thoughts Review and recap of ideas and other helpful thoughts..........................................................................................................181Stories of Humor-Touching and humorous stories to uplift and encourage................................................................................................................195Daily Devotional: The Promises of God-A thirty-day devotional with helpful and uplifting thoughts.....................................................................................239

Chapter One

There is so much knowledge available in this world today. Students without access to a computer during the school day are quickly becoming the exceptions. They now have the world at their fingertips, and while they may not possess any more common sense than other generations did at their age, they certainly have absorbed more information and mastered the tools of our technological world.

I am told that computers, or at least certain computer groups, hold an estimated twenty to thirty pages of data on every person in the civilized world. Network news sources have estimated that the World Wide Web grows by more than 170,000 web pages every day, or over a million each week. That is amazing. At that rate, if a thousand people read one web page every ten minutes, non-stop, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for the rest of their lives, they would lose ground and never catch up. Whew!

Technology is racing ahead of us at a blinding clip. Super computers now process billions of transactions in mere seconds. It boggles one's imagination. I admit it is becoming too much for me. As I sit in front of my multifunctional, multicolored, multimedia, voice-command computer, I am in complete awe of technology. I get headaches wondering how the programs on the tiny chips actually work. I wonder how anyone acquires the knowledge that enables them to put a computer together.

I also wonder what the future holds. My generation mockingly laughed at the 1960s Zager and Evans song "In the Year 2525," when it suggested that machines would be doing everything for us and that our arms and legs would hang at our side with nothing to do. Of course, there were no PCs back then, so it was just a song. Now, I wonder. I can open programs on my PC with voice commands without touching a key. Someday soon we will be able to operate everything we do on the machine simply by talking to it. And to think that thirty years ago the calculator was the discovery of the ages!

There are so many places we may go in order to gather information ... the library, periodicals, files, and of course, computers. We can form opinions on virtually any subject, including technical subjects that are completely unfamiliar to us. We do not have to be experts, because the expert is now on the video or in the box on an electronic circuit board. We can acquaint ourselves with literally any aspect of any subject and become immediate novices through this blitz of information now available to us.

If we want to become experts, however, we must leave off from general knowledge writings and refer to the technical manual. General knowledge is usually some fact mingled with a lot of opinion. That is not a condemnation, just an observation. If we want to construct a boat, we need to follow technical blue-prints that give us facts. If we want to build a gas turbine, that, too, requires technical expertise and facts that can only be obtained from the accepted technical manuals.

The same is true of this topic of life after death after life. Literally tons of nontechnical reference materials exist on this subject, written by all sorts of people with all types of credentials-and motives. These people give you some fact and a lot of opinion. These facts are not technical, but qualify rather as general, basic knowledge. If we want expert fact and guidance on this topic, we must go to the technical manual. The technical manual on life and death is, in my opinion, the Holy Bible. In this matter of animal afterlife, use of the Bible becomes so much more important because there is a lack of general knowledge available to help form an opinion.

It is here, in the Bible, where we learn of mankind's (meaning men and women from the Greek word Cosmos) beginning, end, and eternity. Many individuals scoff at the Bible, but the fact is this book alone has an authority unknown to the sum total of all other books written by men and women, including this very one that you are reading.

Nevertheless, many have put that self-proclaiming truth aside and undertaken, with nothing but their own opinion as a basis, to produce writings that are in conflict with the Bible. These writings do not diminish the unimpeachable authority of the Bible, nor detract from the account of mankind it contains.

I do not wish to offend anyone with my position on the Bible. I merely want to establish from the outset that I revere the Bible above any other writing and that the Bible is the technical manual that I consulted and yielded to in all of the conclusions drawn herein. Where better could someone turn to learn about the hereafter, than to the timeless, yet timely book that was authored by the one who lives there?

I think a quote from this great book will underscore why I rely on the Bible so totally for comfort and guidance. I know the quote is taken a bit out of the context for which it was given, but the tenet of comforting others that it sets forth is prevalent throughout scripture. Simply, it reads:

Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. -I Thessalonians 4:18

These words were...