Missing your beloved companion? The heartfelt pet loss quotes will help you get through this tough time.
53 Comforting Pet Loss Quotes to Help You Grieve Your Furry Friend
Updated on Apr. 25, 2025
Moving pet loss quotes
If you’ve ever loved an animal and grieved its passing, you know a hard truth: Our beloved pets’ lives are entirely too short. And while time can make grief easier to manage, the loss of a pet often stays with us for years. A 2024 survey by U.K.-based charity Pets Trust found that 89% of respondents said that losing a pet was like losing a family member, but in some cases, they didn’t feel like others would understand or agree. If that sounds familiar, reading and sharing these pet loss quotes may help you process your grief.
As someone who’s gone through the unexpected death of a pet, I get it. My dear dog, Elsa, was loved by our whole family, and we miss her. But I found comfort in these heartfelt quotes about pet loss. If you are grieving a pet, quotes about loss may help you, too. Reader’s Digest compiled these remembrance quotes for pets in honor of all the pets who have crossed the rainbow bridge—furry pets, feathered pets and every pet in between.
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Comforting pet loss quotes
Let these heartfelt remembrance quotes for pets help you reflect on just how much your pet meant, and all the ways your friend changed your life for the better. Many of them are speaking about dogs (they are man’s best friend), but they can apply to all of our beloved animal companions.
1. “I thank the Lord that there is one thing in this world that money can’t buy, and that is the wag of a dog’s tail.” —Josh Billings
2. “Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.” —Colette
3. “If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.” —James Herriot
4. “Such short little lives our pets have to spend with us, and they spend most of it waiting for us to come home each day.” —John Grogan
5. “The love of a dog is a pure thing. He gives you a trust which is total. You must not betray it.” —Michel Houellebecq
6. “You can usually tell that a man is good if he has a dog who loves him.” —W. Bruce Cameron
7. “Before you get a dog, you can’t quite imagine what living with one might be like; afterward, you can’t imagine living any other way.” —Caroline Knapp
8. “Petting, scratching and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer.” —Dean Koontz
9. “Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” —Roger Caras
10. “Honor your grief and the pain you feel when you lose a beloved pet. It is the first step toward healing.” —Karen A. Anderson
11. “Companion, friend and confidante, a friend I won’t forget. You’ll live forever in my heart, my sweet forever pet.” —Susanne Taylor
12. “Your place I’ll hold, you will be missed, the fur I stroked, the nose I kissed. And as you journey to your final rest, take with you this … I loved you best.” —Jim Willis
Loss of a dog quotes
Whether you’ve shared years with a canine companion, or just a few short months, their loss is likely to leave you feeling brokenhearted. Try these comforting dog loss quotes to remind you or a loved one of just how special dogs are to us.
13. “When you adopt a dog, you have a lot of very good days and one very bad day.” —W. Bruce Cameron
14. “Dogs’ lives are too short. Their only fault, really.” —Agnes Sligh Turnbull
15. “If you have a dog, you will most likely outlive it; to get a dog is to open yourself to profound joy and, prospectively, to equally profound sadness.” —Marjorie Garber
16. “Dogs die. But dogs live too. Right up until they die, they live. They live brave, beautiful lives. They protect their families. And love us. And make our lives a little brighter. And they don’t waste time being afraid of tomorrow.” —Dan Gemeinhart
17. “Everyone thinks that their dog is the best dog in the world. And none of them are wrong.” —W.R. Pursche
18. “There is nothing truer in this world than the love of a good dog.” —Mira Grant
19. “No one can fully understand the meaning of love unless he’s owned a dog.” —Gene Hill
20. “Once you have had a wonderful dog, a life without one is a life diminished.” —Dean Koontz
21. “No matter how little money and how few possessions you own, having a dog makes you rich.” —Louis Sabin
22. “Dogs have a way of finding the people who need them and filling an emptiness we didn’t ever know we had.” —Thom Jones
23. “The bond with a dog is as lasting as the ties of this earth can ever be.” —Konrad Lorenz
24. “I believe that dogs are sent to us to open our hearts.” —Tamar Geller
Dog heaven quotes
For those of us who believe in an afterlife, it’s comforting to imagine it as a place where we’ll be reunited with all our pets. Many people think of “dog heaven” as a place connected to earth by the rainbow bridge, based on a poem of the same name by Edna Clyne-Rekhy. Read on to find hope in these loss of a pet sayings.
25. “We need to go first because we cannot live without your love and care. If we lived longer than you, we would not and could not survive. It’s supposed to be this way. We also need to cross the rainbow bridge before you do so that we can be on the other side to greet you when you get there. We wait at home for you here, and we wait at home for you there. It’s just the way it is.” —Kate McGahan
26. “With all of my heart, I believe it is true that there is a heaven for animals too. Sometimes I think they already know, all of the animals … just where they’ll go.” —Nancy Tillman
27. “You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us.” —Robert Louis Stevenson
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29. “Dogs, [Milan] Kundera says, are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring—it was peace.” —Anne Raver
30. “I can’t imagine God not allowing my dog into heaven.” —Rick Warren
31. “If there is a heaven, it’s certain our animals are to be there. Their lives become so interwoven with our own, it would take more than an archangel to detangle them.” —Pam Brown
32. “We are our pet’s heaven, and just because their physical body is no longer alive, it doesn’t mean their soul loves us any less. We are loved from beyond and always will be.” —Lyn Ragan
33. “I heard somebody define heaven once as a place where, when you get there, all the dogs you ever loved run to greet you.” —Robert B. Parker
34. “Heaven will be a place of perfect happiness for us—and if we need animals around us to make our happiness complete, then you can be sure God will have them there.” —Billy Graham
35. “Dogs come into our lives to teach us about love and loyalty. They depart to teach us about loss. We try to replace them but never quite succeed. A new dog never replaces an old dog; it merely expands the heart. If you have loved many dogs, your heart is very big.” —Erica Jong
36. “Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.” —Edna Clyne-Rekhy
37. “All dogs go to heaven because, unlike people, dogs are naturally good and loyal and kind.” —Melba Moore
Loss of cat quotes
Our loyal companions, cats always seem to know when we need their comforting purrs and cuddles or their quiet presence. No wonder we feel their absence so painfully. If you’re feeling sad over the loss of a dear feline friend, these pet loss quotes will help you remember why your whiskered pal was so special.
38. “›39. “My story will be over soon. But it’s not something to be sad about. Remembering those who went ahead. Remembering those who will follow after. And someday, we will meet all those people again, out beyond the horizon.” —Hiro Arikawa
40. “Cats are kindly masters just so long as you remember your place.” —Paul Gray
41. “A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.” —Ernest Hemingway
42. “There are few things in life more heartwarming than to be welcomed by a cat.” —Tay Hohoff
43. “I can say with sincerity that I love cats; furthermore, I am going to give very good reasons why those who hate them are wrong.” —Emily Brontë
44. “I have felt cats rubbing their faces against mine and touching my cheek with claws carefully sheathed. These things, to me, are expressions of love.” —James Herriot
45. “Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose.” —Garrison Keillor
46. “If you don’t mourn a dead cat properly, you’ll never get over it.” —Hiro Arikawa
Memorial quotes for pets
Writers, artists and countless others have penned endearing tributes to pets and other members of the animal kingdom. If you’re sending a sympathy card or condolence message to someone who’s lost their companion animal, consider writing pet loss quotes such as these inside.
47. “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” —Anatole France
48. “It is amazing how much love and laughter they bring into our lives and even how much closer we become with each other because of them.” —Josh Grogan
49. “The whole glorious history of animals with people is about joy and connection. It’s about loving this creature and letting this creature love you.” —Jon Katz
50. “We should never underestimate the powerful draw of a bond with a being that loves us unconditionally, asking very little in return. Losing this comfort and source of joy can be incomprehensible.” —Linda Lipshutz
51. “Animals have a much better attitude to life and death than we do. They know when their time has come. We are the ones that suffer when they pass, but it’s a healing kind of grief that enables us to deal with other griefs that are not so easy to grab hold of.” —Emmylou Harris
52. “Pets are humanizing. They remind us we have an obligation and responsibility to preserve and nurture and care for all life.” —James Cromwell
53. “How lucky I am to have known someone and something that saying goodbye is so damned awful.” —Marilyn Hassett in The Other Side of the Mountain
Why trust us
At Reader’s Digest, we’ve been sharing our favorite quotes for over 100 years. The sayings and quips that appear in the magazine’s “Quotable Quotes” (formerly “Remarkable Remarks”) are curated from interviews and essays originally published in the magazine, reprints from trusted titles and other verified sources. For this piece on pet loss quotes, Elizabeth Heath tapped her experience as a journalist to ensure that all information is accurate. We’ve gone the extra step and had Christine Coppa, a fact-checker with 20-plus years of experience, including serving as a staff research editor at Philadelphia magazine and Essence, verify that all quotes are attributed correctly and have credible sourcing. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
Source:
- Your Pets Daily: “New Research From Dogs Trust Reveals the Death of a Dog Is Like Losing a Family Member, but Many Still Feel Isolated in Their Grief”
