Heartfelt Inspirations: A Beautiful Collection of Quotes About Losing a Pet

"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal."

- From a headstone in Ireland

"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."

- Hillary Stanton Zunin

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened."

- Anatole France

"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

"What we have once enjoyed we can never lose; all that we have loved deeply, becomes a part of us."

- Helen Keller

"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

"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."

- A.A. Milne

"Dogs come into our lives to teach us about love, they depart to teach us about loss."

- Erica Jong

"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

"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 Dworkin

"Grief is the price we pay for love"

- Queen Elizabeth II

"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

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."

- Will Rogers

"You think dogs will not be in Heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us."

- Robert Louis Stevenson

"He is my other eyes that can see above the clouds; my other ears that hear above the winds. He is the part of me that can reach out into the sea. He has told me a thousand times over that I am his reason for being; by the way he rests against my leg; by the way he thumps his tail at my smallest smile; by the way he shows his hurt when I leave without taking him. (I think it makes him sick with worry when he is not along to care for me.) When I am wrong, he is delighted to forgive. When I am angry, he clowns to make me smile. When I am happy, he is joy unbounded. When I am a fool, he ignores it. When I succeed, he brags. Without him, I am only another man. With him, I am all-powerful. He is loyalty itself. He has taught me the meaning of devotion. With him, I know a secret comfort and a private peace. He has brought me understanding where before I was ignorant. His head on my knee can heal my human hurts. His presence by my side is protection against my fears of dark and unknown things. He has promised to wait for me… whenever… wherever – in case I need him. And I expect I will – as I always have. He is just my dog."

- Gene Hill

"There are no goodbyes for us. Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"A pet is never truly forgotten until it is no longer remembered."

- Lacie Petitto

"Death ends a life, not a relationship."

- Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie

"You will always be my favourite hello and hardest goodbye."

- Cecelia Ahern

"What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes part of us."

- Helen Keller

"Dogs have a way of finding the people who need them and filling an emptiness we didn’t ever know we had."

- Thom Jones

"Honor your grief and the pain you feel when you lose a beloved pet. It is the first step toward healing."

- Karen A. Anderson

"…love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation."

- Kabil Gibran

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went."

- Will Rogers

"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

"“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”"

- Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

"How lucky I am to have had something that makes saying goodbye so hard."

- A.A. Milne

"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole."

- Roger Caras

"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

"Don’t cry because it’s over, Smile because it happened."

- Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

"I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you; but instead I am deeply honoured knowing you spent the rest of your life with me."

- Camille Marcotte

"Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."

- Winnie the Pooh

"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

"Perhaps they are not stars in the sky, but rather openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy."

- Eskimo legend

"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

"His ears were often the first thing to catch my tears."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"Like a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memories survive in time of sorrow."

- Robert Louis Stevenson

"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

"Heartbreak is life educating us."

- George Bernard Shaw

"Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet."

- Colette

"Pets are not just animals, they are gifts to us that bring love and joy to our lives."

- Bob Barker

"So this is where we part, My Friend, and you'll run on, around the bend, gone from sight, but not from mind, new pleasures there you'll surely find. I will go on, I'll find the strength, life measures quality, not its length. One long embrace before you leave, share one last look, before I grieve. There are others, that much is true, but they be they, and they aren't you. And I, fair, impartial, or so I thought, will remember well all you've taught. 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

"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

"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

"My mind still talks to you and my heart still looks for you but my soul knows you are at peace."

- Unknown Author

"I loved you your whole life and I’ll miss you the rest of mine."

- Unknown Author

"Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in."

- Mark Twain

"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

"The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven, not man’s."

- Mark Twain

"All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle."

- St. Francis of Assisi

"God’s finger touched him, and he slept."

- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome."

- Isaac Asimov

"No matter how little money and how few possessions you own, having a dog makes you feel rich."

- Louis Sabin

"What is grief, if not love persevering?"

- Vision

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"I always knew this time would come, From the very instant our eyes first met. How I loved you then! How I love you now! I made a promise then, and I keep that promise now... You will not suffer from a pain that will not heal; You will not know the loss of a life remembered, now gone. It is for me alone to make this decision, The price for the bright joy and pure laughter You brought me during the time we shared. I am the only one who can decide when it is time. When my hope dies, and my fears ride high, Just when I need you most, I must let you go. It is for you alone to tell me when you are ready For without your guidance, I will not know When to lay my grief, my guilt, my anger, My sorrow and my selfish heart aside And give you this last gift, this greatest gift. Your eyes will speak to mine, and I will know. The pain of this moment is excruciating. Tears stream down my face in a river of sorrow. And my heart drowns in a pool of grief. For you have spoken and I have listened, And unlike other decisions I have made This one brings no relief...no comfort...no peace. For if there's one thing you've taught me, If there's only one thing I've learned... Unconditional love has a condition after all, I must be willing to let you go, when you speak to me I must be willing to help you go, if you cannot go alone. And I must accept my pain so you can be free of yours. Go easily now, go quickly now, Do not linger here, it is time for you to leave. Go find your strength, go find your youth. Go find the ones who've gone before you. You are free to leave me now, free to let your spirit soar Rest easy now, your pain will soon be gone. I pray I will find comfort in my memories... In the dark and lonely days ahead. I cannot say I will not miss you, I cannot say I will not cry. For only my tears can heal my broken heart. But, I promise you this: as long as I live, You will live, alive in my mind, forever in my heart. So I give you this last gift, all I have left to give, And this will be my greatest gift...sending you away. It is the measure of my unconditional love... For only the greatest love can say, "Good-bye, go find the bridge, we'll meet again, Loving you has been the greatest gift of all.""

"Something that comforted me was being told that my love would always be with them, and that their love would always be with me. When I lost my girl I lost a piece of my heart, but I like to believe that she took that piece with her to bring her love until we meet again."

"When you lose your beloved dog, your heart will shatter into pieces. You will pick up the pieces and glue them back together. Your heart will never be the same. It will always be broken. Over time, the pieces will come back together, with love and happiness and memories joining the seams of the broken pieces. Once all the pieces are joined, you realize that the glue of love, happiness, and memories has made your heart just a little bit bigger, and the glue of love, happiness, and memories isn't a scar, but is now a permanent piece of you where that dog will live forever."

"Having a pet is a risk – you always have the grief ahead. But that’s the flip side of love."

- Unknown

"Grief is the price of love, and the depth of your sorrow reflects the depth of your connection. May you find solace knowing that your dog felt your love every day."

"Our beloved pets teach us more than we could ever have expected, and they love us more than we could have hoped."

- Unknown

"If love alone could have kept you here, you would’ve lived forever."

- Unknown

"When we think of those companions who travelled 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."

"From the first hello, to the final farewell, in between, there was love.... so much love. I'm so sorry for your loss"

"To grieve deeply, is to have loved fully"

"The only way to get through grief is to get through it. It’s not a hopeful quote, and it didn’t make me feel better, but it made me feel seen. Grief is part of life."

"Stay close to me in your memories, let me feel you in my heart, let me always feel your love…remember the long great life you gave me. I will always be with you❤️"

"Fly high little buddy❤️🕊️ My thoughts are with you , Pets have paw prints on our hearts💕🐾"

"Everyone is taught that angels have wings, but the lucky ones of us find they have four paws."

- Unknown

"Don't cry for me mom and dad! I'm OK now! I can run like a puppy again! I can even fly with my new angel wings!"

"Having a dog will bless you with the happiest days of your life and one of the worst days."

"The littlest feet make the biggest footprint in our hearts."

"It is a fearful thing to love what death can touch."