Honoring Your Beloved Pet: 90 Heartfelt Pet Loss Quotes to Cherish Their Memory

These pet loss quotes talk about the love we have for our animals, whether all dogs really go to heaven, and loss in general.

Losing a pet is a difficult time for any fur parent, and it leaves friends and family wondering what to say to comfort them.

A card is always nice, or a Facebook message or response on their post.

You could say things like, “You were blessed to have each other.”

Many times, we lose our pets because we make the agonizing decision to put them down, so it is important to recognize that people might also be suffering from guilt.

That wondering “if you let them go too soon” can really wreak havoc on people’s emotions.

When I took our first family dog to the vet to be put down, it nearly killed me.

My husband and I adopted her when I was 22, and she grew up with our kids.

She was about 13 when she developed diabetes.

I gave her shots of insulin, but it got to the point where she could barely see, and I had to carry my lab mix outside.

I felt selfish and wondered if I did the right thing.

Then I remembered how she would start crying after she ate because she knew the shot was coming.

At the vet’s office, she licked my hand until the very end, trying to comfort me, like she always had.

If you’re going through such an emotional time, these pet loss quotes might help comfort you.

Pet death quotes about love

1. “Sorrow is how we learn to love. Your heart isn’t breaking. It hurts because it’s getting larger. The larger it gets, the more love it holds.” ― Rita Mae Brown

2. “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

3. “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

4. “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

5. “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened. ” ― Anatole France

6. “I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me, they are the role model for being alive.” ― Gilda Radner

7. “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

8. “If not for dogs, how would we know the meaning of unconditional love.” ― M.L. Gerard

9. “Having a pet is a risk – you always have the grief ahead. But that’s the flip side of love.” ― Unknown

10. “If love alone could have kept you here, you would’ve lived forever.” ― Unknown

Pet loss quotes and sayings about Heaven

11. “If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.” ― Will Rogers

12. “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

13. “Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.” ― Mark Twain

14. “The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven, not man’s.” ― Mark Twain

15. “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

16. “You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us.” ― Robert Louis Stevenson

17. “No heaven will not ever Heaven be. Unless my cats are there to welcome me.” ― Unknown

18. “You think the final act of love is setting them free to Rainbow Bridge? That is not the final act of love. The final act of love is releasing them from your leash of grief so they can be free in the heaven on the other side of the Bridge.” ― Kate McGahan, JACK McAFGHAN: Reflections on Life with my Master

Pet passing quotes about God, angels, and life without them

19. “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

20. “Some angels choose fur instead of wings.” ― Unknown

21. “Everyone is taught that angels have wings, but the lucky ones of us find they have 4 paws.” ― Unknown

22. “One day we will see our animals again in the eternity of Christ. Paradise is open to all of God’s creatures.” ― Pope Francis

23. “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” ― Winnie The Pooh

24. “Dogs have a way of finding the people who need them and filling an emptiness we didn’t ever know we had.” ― Thom Jones

25. “Once you have a wonderful dog, a life without one, is a life diminished.” ― Dean Koontz

26. “Death ends a life, not a relationship.” ― Jack Lemmon

27. “Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.” ― Isaac Asimov

28. “Dogs make you somebody in the eyes of the universe.” ― Bob Sullivan

29. “The bond with a dog is as lasting as the ties of this earth can ever be.” ― Konrad Lorenz

30. “The one best place to bury a good dog is in the heart of his master.” ― Ben Hur Lampman

31. “That one true heart was left behind! What feeling do we ever find, to equal among humankind, a dog’s fidelity!” ― Thomas Hardy

Pet loss quotes about the way dogs and cats impact our lives

32. “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 within our hand in his old way.”― Unknown

33. “All his sweet and shaggy life, always near me, never troubling me, and asking nothing.”― Pablo Neruda

34. “Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” ― Roger Caras

35. “Time spent with a cat is never wasted.” ― Sigmund Freud

36. “A home without a cat — and a well-fed, well petted and properly revered cat — may be a home, perhaps, but how can it prove title?” ― Mark Twain

37. “No amount of time can erase the memory of a good cat, and no amount of masking tape can ever totally remove his fur from your couch.” ― Leo Dworken

38. “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

39. “The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.” ― Samuel Butler

40. “Having a dog will bless you with the happiest days of your life, and one of the worst days.” ― Unknown

41. “Dogs’ lives are too short. Their only fault, really.” ― Agnes Sligh Turnbull

Pet loss quotes for when it is time to say goodbye

42. “Love is love,” I told her, as I tell all of my patients who are ashamed to find themselves shattered by the death of a dog. “Loss is loss.” ― Meg Donohue, Dog Crazy: A Novel of Love Lost and Found

43. “Honor your grief and the pain you feel when you lose a beloved pet. It is the first step toward healing.” ― Karen A Anderson

44. “I rarely have a pet tell me their human ended their life too soon. It’s far more common to hear that their humans waited too long to help them leave their body.” ― Karen A Anderson

45. “Your pets can feel your grief after they pass away but it will not harm them or keep them from continuing on their journey in the afterlife.” ― Karen A Anderson

46. “A pet is the perfect definition of unconditional love…” ― B.J. Shonk, Missing Pieces…Broken Heart: A Recovery Guide for the Grief and Sorrow of Pet Loss

47. “Of course, not all dogs return to their owners. When they do, it is because a special bond exists between that dog and that person, a karmic bond that transcends death. Do you and your dog share this kind of special bond? Probably you do. You are reading this book because you are meant to read it.” ― Gail Graham, Will YOUR Dog Reincarnate?

48. “What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes part of us.” ― Helen Keller

49. Although my tail its last has waved, from pain and suffering I have been saved. Don’t grieve that it must be you who has to decide this thing to do; We’ve been so close―we two―these years. Don’t let your heart hold any tears.” ― Unknown

50. “Our beloved pets teach us more than we could ever have expected, and they love us more than we could have hoped.” ― Unknown

Pet loss quotes to help you cope with grief

51. “Grieve not, nor speak of me with tears, but laugh and talk of me as if I were beside you..I loved you so- ’twas Heaven here with you.” – Isla Paschal Richardson

52. “A pet is never truly forgotten until it is no longer remembered.” – Lacie Petitto

53. “God’s finger touched him, and he slept.” – Alfred, Lord Tennyson

54. “Somewhere…somewhere in time’s own space,
there must be some sweet pastured space
where creeks sing on and tall trees grow,
Some paradise where horses go.
For by the love that guides my pen,
I know great horses live again.” – Stanley Harrison

55. “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

56. In every heart there is an inner room, where we can hold our greatest treasures and our deepest pain.” – Marianne Williamson

57. “We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults. Heaven has accorded this to us in the uncritical canine attachment.” – George Eliot

58. “We who choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own, live within a fragile circle; easily and often breached. Unable to accept its awful gaps, we would still live no other way. We cherish memory as the only certain immortality, never fully understanding the necessary plan.” – Irving Townsend

59. “I have every confidence we’ll see them again in Heaven.” – Dr. Hebert

60. “Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.” – Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

Pet loss quotes to help ease your sorrow and find solace

61. “Many who have spent a lifetime in it can tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday.” – Thornton Wilder

62. “Nothing to be done really about animals. Anything you do looks foolish. The answer isn’t in us. It’s almost as if were put here on earth to show how silly they aren’t.” – Russell Hoban

63. “I believe all animals were created by God to help keep man alive.” – Iowa Fujita

64. “No one loves you unconditionally as your beloved pet.” – Cynthia Dobesh

65. “All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.” – Samuel Butler

66. “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

67. “No matter how little money and how few possessions you own, having a dog makes you rich.” – Louise Sabin

68. “The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.” – Thorton Wilder

69. “They’re just happy you’re there.” – Sandra Barker

70. “Not the least hard thing to bear when they go from us, these quiet friends, is that they carry away with them so many years of our own lives.” – John Galsworthy

Pet Loss Quotes To Help You Move On

71. “Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent.” ― Milan Kundera

72. “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

73. “A person who has never owned a dog has missed a wonderful part of life.” ― Bob Barker

74. “Our dogs will love and admire the meanest of us, and feed our colossal vanity with their uncritical homage.” ― Agnes Repplier

75. “A new dog never replaces an old dog, it merely expands the heart.” ― Erica Jong

76. “A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself.” ― Josh Billings

77. “Animals are reliable, full of love, true in their affections, predictable in their actions, grateful and loyal. Difficult standards for people to live up to.” ― Alfred Armand Montapert

78. “There is no death, only a change of worlds.” ― Chief Seattle

79. “Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.” ― Rudyard Kipling

80. “He has taught me the meaning of devotion. With him, I know a secret comfort and a private peace. He has brought me to an understanding where before I was ignorant.” ― Gene Hill

Pet Loss Quotes To Comfort and Remember

81. “The bond with a true dog is as lasting as the ties of this earth will ever be.” ― Konrad Lorenz

82. “Pets are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” ― Roger Caras

83. “The loss of a beloved pet leaves a hole in the heart that can never be filled.” ― Roy Horn

84. “Dogs come into our lives to teach us about love and loyalty.” ― Richard Allen Palm

85. “A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” ― Josh Billings

86. “Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation.” ― Dean Koontz

87. “Pets are humanizing. They remind us we have an obligation and responsibility to preserve and nurture and care for all life.” ― James Cromwell

88. “The loss of a pet is like losing a member of your family.” ― Bob Barker

89. “Pets are not just animals, they are gifts to us that bring love and joy to our lives.” ― Bob Barker

90. “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

Which of these pet loss quotes resonated with you best?

My girl taught me so many things about love and life, and in the end, she taught me more about compassion and empathy for suffering.

If you are facing the difficult choice of putting your pet to sleep, just know that they love you.

The love of an animal is one of the most unconditional loves on the planet, and I truly believe they reach a point where we owe them to stop the suffering.

Only you, your pet, and the vet can really decide when that point is, and if you are there, then try and find some peace in knowing you make this choice out of love.

If you have recently lost a pet, it is fine to grieve, and if anyone doesn’t understand the depth of your sadness, that’s ok.

Most of us treat our pets like family members, and they have likely been a source of love and memories and will leave a hole in your heart when they are gone.

You can honor their life and experience grief, just like you would with a human loss.

I often joke that I like my dogs more than most people anyway…

After putting my dog down, I immediately got a new puppy, which in hindsight was not the best course of action.

I cried from the grief of losing my old dog, and puppy frustrations for the first month we had him.

I was a wreck.

In the end, though, he is my best friend.

He is eight now and starting to slow down, and it makes me sad, but I resolve to make every day count.

How have you coped with pet loss?

Which of these pet loss quotes and sayings resonated with you best?

Share your pet stories with us in the comment section below.