Poems for a Dog Who Has Passed Away

These are original poems for a dog who has died, each written for a different moment in the loss — the night they died, the morning after, the choice some owners had to make, the loss of a dog who lived to be old, and the loss of one who didn't. They are free to read aloud, print, or include in a memorial. Read whichever ones meet you where you are.

You are not at the door where you used to wait when I came home.

The bed at the foot is empty.

The room knows you are gone.

I am here, in the kitchen, with the shape of where you used to be.

I will not forget the shape.

You looked at me at the end. You did not know what was coming.

I knew. I held you. I told you the truth, which was that I loved you, and the lie, which was that everything was okay.

I am still telling you that I loved you. I am still here.

You were old at the end. Old in your eyes, old in your bones, slow on the stairs you used to take three at a time.

But you were not old to me. You were the puppy I brought home. You were the dog who slept at my feet in every house I have lived in since.

The old body went. The dog you were did not.

You were not here for long. You were the dog you were going to be.

The walks we never took. The years we should have had. I hold those, too, the same way I hold you.

It has been a year, or two, or some other count that doesn't help.

People still ask if I have a dog. I say no, but I don't mean no.

I mean — there was one, once. She was mine. I was hers. I am still hers, even now.

If you came here looking for the Rainbow Bridge poem — the one about the meadow where dogs wait for their people — that's on its own page for dogs specifically. The tradition began in 1959 with a Scottish teenager named Edna Clyne-Rekhy, and it remains the most-read pet grief poem in the English-speaking world.

You can make a page for your dog and put one of these poems on it. A photo, their name, the years they were with you, the poem that meets the moment. The page has a permanent address. It stays up.

A year from now, on the day you lost them, an email will arrive so you don't have to remember the date alone.

Create their memorial page →

The poems above are Rainbow Memorial's own, written by Hannah Wright. They are free to print, share, read at a service, or include in a memorial. You don't need to credit anyone.

If you want more poems for general pet loss, not specifically dogs, the wider collection is here. For longer reading on grief after losing a dog, Wallace Sife's Loss of a Pet, published by the Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement, is the standard reference.

Can I read these at my dog's funeral or memorial service? Yes. Print them, hand them out, read them aloud — whatever serves the day. You don't need to credit Rainbow Memorial.

Is there a poem written specifically for putting a dog to sleep? Yes. The "For when you had to make the choice" poem above is written for that moment. Many people read it the night of, or in the days after, when the guilt of the decision settles in alongside the grief.

My dog hasn't died yet but is very sick. Is there a poem for that? Anticipatory grief — the grief that comes before — is real and underdiscussed. Some of these poems still apply, particularly the one for an old dog. The wider pet loss poem collection has poems written closer to that moment.

Is the Rainbow Bridge poem more famous than these? Yes. The Rainbow Bridge poem, written by Edna Clyne-Rekhy in 1959, has been the standard for over sixty years. These poems are written to fit alongside it, for the specific moments the Rainbow Bridge poem doesn't cover — the euthanasia decision, the loss of a young dog, the year after the loss.

Who wrote these? Hannah Wright wrote them for Rainbow Memorial. They are original and not adapted from any other source.