Grief is like love with no place to go.
It’s like filling a bucket with water and not being able to turn the spigot off.
The tears just keep flowing and spilling. With no end in sight.
We all have grieved.
You’re brokenhearted. Of course you are.
It’s truly like love with no place to go.
“We know how painful the loss of a pet is. We know how closely intertwined in our lives and families they are.” – Veronica Van Hof, Baltimore Humane Society
Love is all bundled up and squeezed into your heart. But the object of your affection is gone. Permanently.
Where do you put that big bunch of love?
There is no bridge for me to cross.
I’d meet you anywhere; I’d swim the ocean, if only I could have you back with me again.
Oh, my God. How do I go on without you nuzzling my hand, licking my tears? My best companion, my dear sweet friend.
Grief doesn’t last a day, or a month or a year. You die every time I wake up and remember that you’re gone.
The pain rolls over me every time and there’s no stopping the tide of sadness.
With so much pain, it’s hard to imagine ever getting through it. It seems too big, too tragic, to ever loosen its hold on me.
If you feel love, you will inevitably feel loss. Sad as it is.
Is it worth it? Yes, it is. A hundred, a thousand times over.
How To Honor Your Pet:
- Spread your pet’s ashes somewhere special, or reserve a place in your home for your pet’s ashes and photos of your pet.
- Plant a native tree or flowering shrub in memory of your pet.
- Create a memory box with your pet’s collar or favorite toys.
“When they pass, it’s sort of like the history of your life flashing in front of you, as well, because they are tied to those moments in your life.” – Corey Roscoe
- Commission a painting, statue, memorial stone or plush animal representation of your pet.
- Write about your feelings, or write a letter to your pet about all the things you’d like to say to them.
- Write an obituary for your pet.
- Share photos and memories of your pet via social media.
Grief is the salt that flows down your cheeks and burns through the tracks of your tears.
It is a fire you cannot put out. And when the tears do cease, you know they will come back again.
The lack of sound is deafening. No bark; no meow. No feed me; love me.
How long does it last? It lasts forever. As long as your remain on this earth.
Grief is just love with nowhere to go.
She still purred softly as she took her final breath. She died in my arms. I’m glad I could give her that. My beloved Sharkfin 💔. The hole in my heart was so painful, I adopted an 11 yo foster cat, Carly. I love her so much tho she won’t take Sharkfin’s place. I’m only dreading I won’t have many years with her because of her age, but I know I’m giving her as much love as possible. I feel your pain, Brenda, and Ty for this beautiful post 💕🐈
every quote a stab to the heart and greatly appreciated. Dave, my beloved husband, died a decade ago and every day is a reminder he’s gone. So many of our companions have gone ahead as well and now I’ve two dogs, Bella the Beautiful, and Honey Beau Hunkous living with me. Horses have died, cats have died…it’s the natural order of things but with that knowing doesn’t come comfort. Casting my cares on God because He cares for me helps.
But it’s still hard.
Thank you for these beautiful grief quotes – really needed to read these when nothing else could capture what the painful, emotional wordless feelings I was suffering from. These helped tremendously. In loving memory of Ziggy Sequoia, my dedicated Patterdale Terrier hearing service dog who was tragically murdered by a truck driver in a white pick up truck and never got caught. I miss you Ziggy with my entire soul, body, mind and heart.
Brenda…I am so so sorry for the loss of your darling Abi….it is heartbreaking when this happens….my thoughts go out to you.
Aww, Brenda, I think of your Abi every time my old girl has an accident, which is happening more frequently these days. There will come a time she will be gone and I will grieve and miss her terribly….and I shall remember these wise words you have shared with us.
Brenda you have a hole in your heart. You loved Abi so much. There are so many animals out there that need your love. Abi would want that for you. Charlie is probably feeling just the same. It would help you heal. Just visit a shelter and see if a furry friend is waiting on you. Hugs
Anna Quindlin’s quote is so true, it happens again every morning. Even though Henry has been gone for 2 and a half years I still think of him when I awake, it’s always with me in one form or another. It does get more bearable, but it never goes away. And truthfully, I don’t want it to.
Brenda, I know you are having a very hard time. I am wondering if enough time has passed that you might consider adopting another dog? Not to replace your Abi, but to give that love a place to go. Another dog is out there needing a woman with love I to spare.
My heart literally hurts for you… God bless you.
Beautiful quotes Brenda. I’ll say it again “One Day at a Time”. You and Charlie are doing just fine.
Carol and Molly
This is why we have sweet memories Brenda…so we never forget…
Brenda…my heart is beating fast as I read the pain you are going through at this time. I pray for you…I pray for comfort and eventually an acceptance with peace. It will be a while in coming but it will. But, for today and the days coming there is a journey to wellness. A road traveled by so many who have lost their furbabies to the “Rainbow Bridge.” God made animals first in the Garden of Eden.. before He made man. .They were important to Him and He knew they would be to mankind; and they are important to us. When that little furball of love is taken we feel we will never be the same. We never are..but we can finally get to a place that we would not call them back if we could because their pain and suffering is now over and they too are at rest. I hope before long you will recall all the sweetness, love,and joy Abi brought into your life and be able to blow her memory kisses and know she is not forgotten. Not by you or your reader friends. We mourn with and for you.
I’m so incredibly sorry, Brenda.
I am so sorry for your loss. Nothing anyone can say will make it easier but I think the quotes are helpful. So many great reminders of why we choose to give our hearts to someone we love.
Take care, Shelley
I saw you and Abi in the journey. I hope the fireflies have not made you cry more. Yet, for too many a day of this journey tears are all that is in us. Just “be” in your tears and grief Brenda and don’t expect more because it is a journey and a journey that was mean’t to be heartfelt.
The day I laid my prince of a boy to rest – I only wanted to go with him while every single particle of my being screamed, “no, no, no” and “please not him”.
I tell you true, if I thought I wanted to be in Heaven before – I absolutely must get there now and because now …He has my boys!
Thank you, not only for a lovely blog but a wonderful place that others have been able to share with you in such meaningful, genuine manner.
You created this, bless you.
as one of the quotes… it DOES come in waves. it still comes in waves. and it’s been years. the worst with my Zeke was the memory of seeing him wag his tail even at the end! even THEN.
yes. we’ve been through it. and we’re here with you.
it’s not much. but it’s something. sending you love. and strength. xo
Yes, we grieve in so many ways. Thinking of you Brenda and of Abi.
Missing her is a pain I doubt will ever go away.
I too saved these very quotes when I was drowning in grief. Some days the effort was too much and I just cried, even now almost 3 years later I find myself crying just thinking about my little Munchen. Life does move forward and there is a hole in our hearts that never heals but we move on. The love we gave and received from these sweet fur kids in stored in our hearts and minds and is like a balm on the hard days.
A big hug to you and charlie.
That’s what I feel like I’m doing. Drowning. And at times I just want to give up swimming and go on under. Because there is nowhere I can be in this life that I’m not missing her. It’s this giant wound that I know will never heal.
Although we have Toby, and he is a joy to our hearts, we still miss Roxie and her loss of almost 12 years ago. There is always that little part of your heart you can’t seem to fill.
Annie
They all hold a special place in our hearts. I keep thinking the pain will fade a bit. Then it comes in huge waves all over again.
OMG the title of this post is heart-rending.
Unfortunately I have no magic words to make the hurt go away, but I am wishing you peace and solace, soon.
There are no magic words. If there were I’d have moved heaven and earth to find them by now.
It’s funny because I had just awoken from a dream before coming to read on the computer. In it my boy was alive but had been taken from me. I was using a cell phone in my dream to call authority but no matter how hard I tried it would not work for me. A friends cell was working fine but even when I tried that it would not work for me. There’s a dream I thought self explanatory. A woman wanting her dog back desperately but no matter how hard she tries it cannot be done.
I wish I could say three months later is better but you wouldn’t want me to lie to you. I do recognize distraction can help and use it. Sometimes it even feels like an anesthetic comes over me but both conditions I recognize as something happening outside of me rather than within.
There is another one on Pinterest that shows a dog waiting on this side of rainbow bridge. The caption underneath reads, “They will wait forever” …
“Boy”, I thought, my boys will there in that line up! It took a whole tissue box to get through that one. For anyone who has ever loved a dog, they just know.
There’s a writing on the Dove Lewis site some might appreciate. I like the part that says … beware it’s not without pain. Did someone forget to tell us this part? Sometimes I think anyone who has ever truly loved these creatures are braver souls than they know.
They aren’t with us a long time but for the time that they were they sure did pack a punch.
How incredibly special they really are.
https://www.dovelewis.org/pet-loss-blog/advice/the-journey/2436/
I will go read it. Thank you.
These touch all of us in some way. Thank you for sharing. I’ve lost too many in my life right now but my life is better for having had the love of those who have gone before me. Hugs!
I think it’s finally sinking in what occurred in that last week. How I saw her fading. And that last 24 hours when I knew as the clock ticked it was getting closer to the time the vet was coming to give her that final shot. I would not let myself break down. I didn’t want her last day to be sad or afraid. But now I realize that last 24 hours was the single hardest thing I’ve ever done. And now I’m feeling every bit of what I wouldn’t allow myself to feel then.
Beautiful words in this post. Take care of yourself. Give yourself and Charlie a huge hug from all of your readers.
I wish Charlie would let me hug him. He just doesn’t have it in him. I am reminded of how tiny Abi was getting over that last week. I would pick her up from the vet after she’d had fluids for the day, and she was so weak I’d tuck her in next to me in the seat belt. It was like losing a little more of her every day.
We all grieve with you. Some of us can totally understand what a tremendous event this has been for you as we have also had to go through it ourselves. Tears in my eyes, going through this with you and brought all the memories back of my Romeo. No other dog could ever compare to him for me.
I guess we will always be reminded and grieve all over again. It may fade a bit, but I doubt it will ever go away.
Grieving is so hard…
You have a whole community grieving with you…
So true. No dry eyes here.
I know. And I am so lucky to have you all to hold me up when I can’t do it myself.
Just keep swimming Brenda, just keep swimming ❤️
I am. I’m swimming in my dreams and I’m swimming when I’m awake. I don’t know if I’m swimming toward something or away from it.
Crying about my Daisy as I read these. So eloquent
I’ve cried so much I don’t reach for tissue or paper towels any more. I just get a bath towel.
I love all of them . I’m going to print them so I can reread them. Thank you
I don’t have a printer right now. But I come back here and keep reading them because it helps a little. It helps to know that this is a pain that is universal. Not that I’d want anyone else to hurt like this. But if you love, there will come a time that you grieve. That is the cost of loving.
I loved all these quotes. You have helped me so much with the loss of my beloved dog. Thank you for sharing your grief with others, and I hope it is helping you too.
And thank you for sharing with me. There is no time table on grief. It is like the ocean in that it ebbs and flows. Out of nowhere I just break down and feel like I can’t possibly feel more pain. But yet I do, every single day. Like the quote said, every day you wake up and it hits you all over again.
I so relate to the comment “grief is love with no place to go”. It helps to read and absorb others words when they can express it so well and I cannot. It relieves some of heaviness of the heart. Hope this day brings you some peace and comfort. Hug Charlie.
I went outside to water and happened to look at the chair Abi always sat in to watch me. She rarely ever took her eyes off me. I miss her being there. I miss that impish little face. I miss my baby girl.
Such beautiful thoughts. I hope the day will be a great one for you
Much of yesterday and today, I cried. I cried when I went to Sonic to get a bite to eat. I cried as I drove and had to keep wiping my eyes so I could see through the veil of tears. For some reason I just can’t seem to stop crying.
So many beautiful comments and I can connect with all of them. They are all very fitting and true. Thanks for sharing. I will keep this post and return to it many times.
If I read the quotes, and then these comments, over and over again, then I know I am not alone in this darkness. There is just a shadow hanging over me.
So much wisdom in all those.
I like to go to Pinterest when I’m upset but have no words. I always find words that console me there.