After the death of our beloved dachshund, Silke, we were inspired by the kind words and prayers offered by our friends. We’ve compiled many pet loss quotes and prayers for you to use.

Whether you use this page to find the right words of condolences to others or read for your own peace of mind, we hope that it brings you comfort. You are not alone in your journey. At some point, all pet parents face this heartache.

It’s our sincere hope these pet loss quotes will help express those sentiments that can be so hard to put into words.

Pet Loss Quotes

“Heartbreak is life educating us.”

– George Bernard Shaw

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

– Anatole France

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

– Mark Twain

“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

“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

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

– Anonymous

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

– Roger Caras

“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

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

– Kabil Gibran

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

– Saint Francis of Assisi

“God’s finger touched him, and he slept.” 

– Alfred, Lord Tennyson

“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

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

– Anonymous

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

– Mark Twain

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

– Isaac Asimov

“Death ends a life, not a relationship.” 

– Jack Lemmon

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

– Lacie Petitto

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

– Will Rogers

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

– Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

“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

“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

“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, from his Dalmatian, Blemie’s, last will and testament

“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

“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