50 Rainbow Bridge Quotes – Quotes About Pet Loss

Rainbow Bridge Quotes

So that’s why it’s called the Rainbow Bridge

Today, I took my mom’s dog to the vet. She’s sick. And I sat down next to a very puffy-eyed man, and his solemn old dog, and listened to him, and he broke my heart.

He was saying, to no one but his dog, why, when animals die, they cross a rainbow bridge into Heaven. He told his dog, in a raspy, wavering voice, that’s it’s because all animals are color blind, and don’t care what color you are, that they accept you all the same.

And he started bawling, as I have never seen any man do, and he wrapped his dog in his arms, as everyone silently wept with him.

You couldn’t hear too much more, as the man’s tears ran through the dog’s fur, but at the end, when the vet’s assistant came out for him, tissues in her hands, I could hear him pleading, with God, or his dog, I’ll never know. He kept saying, “Wait for me. Wait for me.”

And as he walked away, he looked as if he’d aged decades, and still looked like a little boy, with one last hope on his face that he’d walk out of there with his best friend.

And as I sat there, I hoped it was true. I hope that dog waits for him, that when it comes time for that man to finally reach the end of his life, I hope that dog is waiting for him.

As I left, I could hear that man, his heart breaking into dust, coming out of that room, and I knew that sound. I made that sound two years ago, and I’m making it now. It is the sound of a part of your very soul being wrenched away from your body, of walking a lifetime knowing that you won’t be completely whole again.

I don’t pray anymore. But I did then. I prayed to Anybody who was listening to give that man some peace one day. To everyone who has ever lost part of themselves that whoever they lost met them at the bridge to help them cross over.

He left, that dog wrapped in his arms, a shell of a man, holding the shell that had been his friend. And as I looked at him, he looked at me, wildly, blindly, and I looked away. I couldn’t grieve with him.

I wish I would’ve said something. Anything, to let him know it was gonna be okay.

© Posted byu/notastepfordwife | Reddit | r/offmychest

According to Wikipedia, Rainbow Bridge is the theme of several poetry works written in the 1980s and 1990s that speak of an ethereal place where pets go upon death, eventually to be reunited with their owners. One is a prose poem whose original creator is uncertain.

While pets lives’ are temporary, our love for them will be forever. Losing a pet, especially dogs, is tough. Still, hopefully, pet owners who lost theirs can find comfort in these quotes about Rainbow Bridge.

“All the love you ever gave is waiting for you there at Rainbow Bridge.” Kate McGahan

“There are spiritual guardians at all the transitional places in our mysterious multidimensional Universes. The precious sacred souls of animals are created to beautifully traverse these regions when their bodies are no more upon the Earth.” Elizabeth S. Eiler

“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

“For many people, the love or the loss of an animal often becomes a gateway into a deeper spiritual journey. The most pragmatic of men will begin to question the fundamental nature of being when he is visited by an apparition of his deceased cat or dog companion.” Elizabeth Eiler

“Grief is an emotional rollercoaster. You will have your ups and downs and moments of terror and brief moments of peace. You can only go as fast as the ride will take you. Just remember: It will end and you will be okay.” Kate McGahan

“We think that we are living when we walk upon the earth but the very moment we “die” there, we wake up here! This life on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge is the real one. We find that our life on earth was just a dream, a dream designed to lead us further and further into love. True love grows and then cannot be destroyed. It grows and grows until it is stronger than death.” Kate McGahan

“I took one long last look at her before disappearing into the Rainbow Forest where another Master was calling me Home. “I love you Jack I love you Jack I love you Jack…” she kept saying, until I was far from her sight. To this day she still whispers, “I love you Jack,” even when she thinks I can’t hear her anymore…but I can. Sometimes what seems to be the ending of something is just the beginning of everything.” Kate McGahan

“There is a strange intangible place on the outside edges of the human mind. It hangs there like a constant witness. It judges a person’s every move, every thought and every action. Some people think it is “big brother” or God, but it is just a critical place inside the person’s own mind that judges and condemns. It is the very place where we judge ourselves when we cross Rainbow Bridge into Heaven.” Kate McGahan

“The angels came to tell me what I could expect and how to get where I needed to go. I was reassured that I would not have to cross the Bridge alone. There were so many things I did not yet know. I could feel my mental clarity leaving. I fixed my gaze upon her. I watched her as I left. It was like shutting the door of a beloved home for the last time. Like closing up camp for the season. One last look at the ocean before you must leave it behind with hopes of return but with no guarantee. You eventually have to turn away and look the other direction so that you can see where it is you are going.” Kate McGahan

“So many people say they put their pets ‘down’ when they are really lifting them up.” Kate McGahan

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

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

“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

“A good dog never dies. He always stays. He walks besides 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

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

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

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

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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.” – Aeschylus

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

“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

“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

“They say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of the grief is finite.” – Cassandra Clare

“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

“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

“Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.” – From an Irish Headstone

“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

“Dogs leave pawprints on our hearts” – Author Unknown

“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

“I should know enough about loss to realize that you never really stop missing someone-you just learn to live around the huge gaping hole of their absence.” – Alyson Noel

“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 gifts the commonest.” – Martin Luther

“Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe. We are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made.” – Roger A. Caras

“One day we will again see our animals in the eternity of Christ.” – Pope Paul VI

“Dogs are always good and full of selfless love. They are undiluted vessels of joy who never, ever deserve anything bad that happens to them.” – Steven Rowley

“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

“I feel about my dogs now, and all the dogs I had prior to this, the way I feel about children – they are that important to me. When I have lost a dog I have gone into a mourning period that lasted for months.” – Mary Tyler Moore

“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

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

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

“The worst thing about losing your dog is not having someone there to lick the tears away.” Anonymous

“His ears were often the first thing to catch my tears.” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“Old men miss many dogs.” Steve Allen

“The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same nor would you want to.” Elisabeth Kubler-Ross