81 Pet Loss Grief Quotes – Bring Comfort in the Grieving Process

Pet grief quotes have been found to help with comfort during the grieving process as a pet parent.

The topic of pet loss and grief is not new to us. Our pets have always been our children, so when the loss arrives, it is devastating. The loss of a pet has been the worst experience we have had. 

Recently, we had to say goodbye to our sweet Betty White. To say it has been a difficult time, leading up to our goodbye is an understatement. When she was diagnosed with lung cancer, we were torn into pieces. We knew that before she crossed the rainbow bridge, we were going to give her the best rainbow adventures via a doggy bucket list that one could have. And so, we did. 

Those few months brought so much happiness, seeing her honest affection through her eyes. Despite her being 13, and us having the best birthday paw-ty for her, it still wasn’t long enough. Our animal friends live such short lives, in comparison to our lives.

We have this long period of time without them. We have more sadness as we reflect on the amount of time we did have with our furbabies. It’s bittersweet, really. 

​Why are Pet Grief Quotes Important?

You can live your whole life and not have a pet, but then you wouldn’t be able to experience the true meaning of love. There is so much love that comes with being a pet parent. There is also so much heartbreak… well, one huge heartbreak with the pain of grief. 

People have told us, through the years, some very poignant things when it comes to losing a furry family member. When we used to have our business in the pet care industry, we would run across them all the time. 

Pet loss quotes are important because it makes you, as a pet parent feel like you are not alone. The grief that comes with the loss of a furry friend is one that most people do not get. Most workplaces don’t understand when you tell them that you can’t come to work because your pet has passed. Most people don’t get it when you are lying in bed, unable to get up due to the huge loss of a beloved pet. The void is huge. 

Dog quotes can be comforting at any time, but pet grief quotes are especially beneficial during the period of sadness. We wanted to share the list we have compiled through the years.

81 Pet Grief Quotes to Comfort While Grieving the Loss of Your Pet

Some of these loss-of-pet quotes were told to us by shelter and rescue group workers. Some of them have been relayed by other pet owners through the years. If we know who they came from, we will note that. If we do not, and you know where it came from, please let us know so we can give credit. 

We hope that these pet grief quotes bring you comfort during your time of loss.

1. “My little dog—a heartbeat at my feet.” –Edith Wharton
2. “Dogs come into our lives to teach us about love, they depart to teach us about loss. 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
3. “A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” – Josh Billings
4. “Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.” – Winnie the Pooh
5. “Dogs come into our lives to teach us about love, they depart to teach us about loss. 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
6. “There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.” – Washington Irving
7. “Dogs have a way of finding the people who need them and filling an emptiness we didn’t even know we had.” – Thom Jones
8. “Sometimes losing a pet is more painful than losing a human because, in the case of the pet, you were not pretending to love it.” – Amy Sedaris
9. “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss
10. “If you look up at the sky and see a beautiful cloud that you like very much, but then it disappears, you might think, ‘Where did my beloved cloud go?’ If you carefully observe, you will realize that the cloud did not die or disappear. It transformed into rain. When you see the rain, you will see the cloud. When you drink tea mindfully, you will see the rain and the cloud in the tea. I know you; you did not die. You continue to live in a new form. Your dog is the same. If you look closely, you will see it in a new form.” -Thich Nhat Hanh
11. “I guess you don’t really own a dog, you rent them, and you have to be thankful that you had a long lease.” – Joe Garagiola
12. “The world would be a nicer place if everyone had the ability to love as unconditionally as a dog.” – M.K. Clinton
13. “Grief is like the ocean; it comes on waves, ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim.” – Vicki Harrison
14. “Sorrow is how we learn to love. Your heart isn’t breaking, it hurts because it’s getting larger.” – Rita Mae Brown
15. “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” – Anatole France
16. “Dogs’ lives are too short. Their only fault, really.” -Agnes Sligh Turnbull
17. “No longer by my side, but forever in my heart.” – Unknown
18. “What we have once enjoyed, we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” – Helen Keller
19. “The pain of grief is the price we pay for love.” – Dr. Colin Murray Parkes
20. “Death – the last sleep? No, it is the final awakening.” – Sir Walter Scott
21. “Although it’s difficult today to see beyond the sorrow, may looking back in memory help comfort you tomorrow.” – Unknown
22. “The pain passes, but the beauty remains.” – Pierre Auguste Renoir
23. “Grief is the last act of love we have to give to those we loved. Where there is deep grief, there was great love.” – Unknown
24. “Like a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memories survive in time of sorrow.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
25. “Nobody can fully understand the meaning of love unless he’s owned a dog. A dog can show you more honest affection with a flick of his tail than a man can gather through a lifetime of handshakes.” – Gene Hill
26. “The risk of love is loss, and the price of loss is grief. But the pain of grief is only a shadow when compared with the pain of never risking love.” – Hilary Stanton Zunin
27. “Dogs…do not ruin their sleep worrying about how to keep the objects they have, and to obtain the objects they have not. There is nothing of value they have to bequeath except their love and their faith.” – Eugene O’Neill
28. “The bond between a pet and a human is a sacred one, and when a pet is gone, a part of us goes with them.” – James Herriot
29. “Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out, and your dog would go in.” – Mark Twain
30. “The bond with a dog is as lasting as the ties of this earth can ever be.” – Konrad Lorenz
31. “Loss leaves us empty – but learn not to close your heart and mind in grief. Allow life to replenish you. When sorrow comes it seems impossible – but new joys wait to fill the void.” – Pam Brown
32. “When your pet passes, they are allowing room for you to rescue another one.” – Shelter Worker Friend
33. “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.” – St. Francis of Assisi
34. “Death ends a life, not a relationship.” – Jack Lemmon
35. “If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I know will go to heaven, and very very few people.” – James Thurber
36. “Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality.” – Emily Dickinson
37. ​“We never truly get over a loss, but we can move forward and evolve from it.” – Elizabeth Berrien
38. ​“Seeing death as the end of life is like seeing the horizon as the end of the ocean.” – David J. Searls
39. “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” – Winnie The Pooh
40. “Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.” – Kabil Gibran
41. “If you don’t own a dog, at least one, there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.” – Roger Caras
42. “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.” – John Grogan
43. “The littlest feet make the biggest footprints in our hearts.” – Unknown
44. “I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you; but instead I am deeply honored knowing you spent the rest of your life with me.” – Camille Marcotte
45. “The dog is the most faithful of animals and would be much esteemed were it not so common. Our Lord God has made his greatest gift the commonest.” – Martin Luther
46. “Having a dog will bless you with the happiest days of your life and one of the worst days.” – Unknown
47. “Never. We never lose our loved ones. They accompany us; they don’t disappear from our lives. We are merely in different rooms.” – Paulo Coelho
48. “A person who has never owned a dog has missed a wonderful part of life.” – Bob Barker
49. “To call him a dog hardly seems to do him justice, though inasmuch as he had four legs, a tail, and barked, I admit he was, to all outward appearances. But to those who knew him well, he was a perfect gentleman.” – Hermione Gingold
50. “No matter how little money and how few possessions you own, having a dog makes you feel rich.” – Louis Sabin
51. “You do not own a dog. You have a dog. And the dog has you.” – Chelsea Handler
52. “Money can buy you a fine dog, but only love can make him wag his tail.” – Kinky Friedman
53. “’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” – Lord Tennyson
54. “Grief is not meant to be your soul’s final destination; rather a resting place for the heart as you emerge onto the path of healing.” – Karen A. Anderson
55. “If you don’t own a dog, at least one, there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.”
    – Roger Caras
56. “The pain of grief is real, but it’s also an echo and an aftershock, the spirits of past emotions rising up to grip your hand again.” – Meg Donohue
57. “Once you’ve had a wonderful dog, a life without one is a life diminished.” – Dean Koontz
58. “A good dog never dies. He always stays. He walks beside you on crisp autumn days when frost is on the fields and winter’s drawing near. His head is within our hand in his old way.” – Mary Carolyn Davies
59. “I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten or twelve years, what would it be if they were to live double that time? The misery of keeping a dog is his dying so soon. But, to be sure, if he lived for fifty years and then died, what would become of me?” – Sir Walter Scott
60. “If there are no dogs in heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.” – Will Rogers
61. “You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly – that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.” – Anne Lamott 
62. “The risk of love is loss, and the price of loss is grief. But the pain of grief is only a shadow when compared with the pain of never risking love.” – Hilary Stanton Zunin
63. “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
64. “I loved you your whole life. I’ll miss you for the rest of mine.” – Unknown
65. “When we think of those companions who traveled by our side down life’s road, let us not say with sadness that they left us behind but rather say with gentle gratitude that they once were with us.” – Unknown
66. “Companion, friend and confidante, a friend I won’t forget. You’ll live forever in my heart, my sweet forever pet.” – Susanne Taylor
67. “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
68. “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
69. “Everyone thinks that their dog is the best dog in the world. And none of them are wrong.” – W.R. Pursche
70. “There is nothing truer in this world than the love of a good dog.” – Mira Grant
71. “When you adopt a dog, you have a lot of very good days and one very bad day.” – W. Bruce Cameron
72. “If the kindest souls were rewarded with the longest lives, dogs would outlive us all.” – Unknown
73. “I believe that dogs are sent to us to open our hearts.” – Tamar Geller
74. “You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
75. “Dogs 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
76. “I can’t imagine God not allowing my dog into heaven.” —Rick Warren
77. “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 
78. “God will prepare everything for our perfect happiness in heaven, and if it takes my dog being there, I believe he’ll be there.” – Billy Graham 
79. ​“It came to me that every time I lose a dog, they take a piece of my heart with them, and every new dog that comes into my life gifts me with a piece of their heart. If I live long enough, all of the components of my heart will be dog, and I will become as generous and as loving as they are.” – Anonymous
80. “Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.” —Edna Clyne-Rekhy
81. “All dogs go to heaven because, unlike people, dogs are naturally good and loyal and kind.” – Melba Moore
82. “Every morning, I wake up and forget just for a second that it happened. But once my eyes open, it buries me like a landslide of sharp, sad rocks. Once my eyes open, I’m heavy, like there’s too much gravity on my heart.” – Sarah Ockler

​A Helpful Resource for Grieving the Death of a Pet

When I (shannon) first lost our pup, Pharrell, I struggled with wondering if I would see him again. I used to ask anyone I knew what they thought about the afterlife with or without our pets.

A lot of humans like to say things like, “They are in a better place,” or “You’ll see them again if that is happiness to you.” I sought anything I could get my hands on for comfort that I definitely would see him again.

Pet grief quotes and helpful comments may have good intentions behind them. However, sometimes during your grief process, they come across as just words. Filler words for people who don’t know what else to say.

During an evening that was particularly challenging in my grief journey, I sat beside Betty, just sobbing with grief. She was so supportive, giving me so much love as I cried on her fur.

I began googling the question on my phone, “Do pets go to Heaven?” I wanted to find scholarly evidence. I ran across a book, “I Will See You in Heaven” by Friar Jack Wintz. Not only did the book help me with my grieving process, it provided me solace in his words about seeing our pets again one day. 

I recently pulled the book back down off the shelf. Tears were shed as I read it, once again, seeking comfort in knowing that I will see Betty White again.

Additional Help with Pet Loss

If you are reading this and feel as though you are alone in your grief, please know that you are not. We remember the time in our own lives when we felt isolated in pain.

When people in our lives didn’t understand our grief, we walked away from them. We could no longer be surrounded by people who were judgmental about the pain we were experiencing, losing our furry kids. 

Talking to someone does help. If you would like to search for a therapist who is experienced in dealing with pet loss and grief, head over to Mental Health Match. You can search for a therapist who fits your specific needs and budget. 

​We hope that these quotes provide you with some light and warmth during your healing journey. They certainly have helped us along the way. 

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