Pet Obituary Examples for a Dog, Cat or Any Companion

A pet obituary is written in the family's voice, because that is who is grieving: "our dog", "she slept on our feet", "the sounds we made when we came home". It is shorter than a person's, it has no survivors list in the formal sense, and the best ones are read aloud to children. The examples below are invented.

A few lines for a photograph

Biscuit, 2012 – 2026. Fourteen years of stolen socks, guarded porches and a tail that knew our car before we did. Good boy. The best boy.

Mabel the cat, who arrived on our step in the winter of 2009 and decided to stay. She left on her own terms, as she did everything. We were honoured to be her staff.

A dog (about 150 words)

Our dog Biscuit died on September 5, 2026, at fourteen, in the sun on the back porch, which was his favourite place in the world.

He came to us from the county shelter as a puppy with one ear that never stood up. He ate a couch, most of a birthday cake and one library book, and he was forgiven for all of it by dinner. He walked Emma to the bus every morning for nine years and waited at the window until it came back. He was afraid of the vacuum, the mailman and thunder, and afraid of nothing else, including the coyote he chased out of the yard in 2019.

He is missed by Mark, Julie, Emma and Jack, and by the mailman, who brought a biscuit every day for a dog who barked at him every day. We will keep the sock drawer closed out of habit for a long time.

A cat (about 120 words)

Mabel died on August 19, 2026, at what the vet guessed was nineteen years old, asleep in the laundry basket, on the clean towels, which she would have considered correct.

She arrived on our step in a snowstorm in 2009 and never explained herself. She ignored every bed we bought her, tolerated two children and outlived two dogs, and she spent the last six years on the arm of Grandpa's chair, and then, after he died, on the chair itself. She purred exactly once a day, at 6 a.m., at whoever was slowest to get up.

We are told cats do not love people. We were told wrong. Mabel, the towels are yours.

A horse (about 130 words)

Duke, a bay Quarter Horse gelding, was put to rest on September 12, 2026, at twenty-eight, in the pasture he had grazed since he was four, with Joan's hand on his neck.

Duke taught three generations of Haskins children to ride, and he taught every one of them the same lesson: sit up, look where you are going, and do not lie to the horse. He won two county ribbons, refused every trailer for his entire life, and could open the feed room door with his lips. He carried Elmer on his last ride in June, slowly, both of them pretending it was not the last.

He is buried under the cottonwood by the creek, where he liked the shade. Good horse.

What to include

• Their name, and what they were: a dog, a cat, a horse, a rabbit. Breed if it matters to you; "a shelter mutt with one ear" is a better description than most breeds.
• When they came and how: the shelter, the litter, the step in the snow.
• Two or three habits that were only theirs. This is the whole obituary, really.
• Who they lived with, by first name, including children and other animals.
• How they went, gently, if you want to say. Many families leave this out; many find it helps to say "in the sun on the porch".

Writing one for children

Use short sentences and the child's own words for the animal. Say that they died, not that they "went to sleep" or "went away", which confuses small children and frightens them at bedtime. Let the child add a line. It will be the best one.

Biscuit was my dog. He was brown with one ear up and one ear down. He liked cheese and hated baths. He died because he was very old. I gave him his blanket. I love you Biscuit. — Jack, age 7