The Rainbow Bridge poem: what it means and where it came from

What is the Rainbow Bridge?

The Rainbow Bridge is a place described in a short prose poem that many pet owners read after a loss. In it, pets who have died arrive in a meadow of grass and hills. They are well again: the old ones young, the sick ones healthy, the hurt ones whole. They play together and want for nothing, except the person they left behind. One day, the poem says, a pet looks up and sees that person coming. They run to each other, and then they cross the bridge together.

That is the whole of it, and it is why the image has lasted. It answers the three things that hurt most after a pet dies:

• Their suffering. Many owners watched a pet decline. The poem lets them picture that pet strong again.
• Being apart. The pet is waiting, safe and with friends.
• The goodbye. It promises a reunion instead of an ending.

What "crossed the Rainbow Bridge" means

When someone says their dog or cat "crossed the Rainbow Bridge," they mean the pet has died. People use it in sympathy cards, in posts announcing a loss, and in conversations with children. The phrase works for any animal, so you will see it for dogs, cats, horses, rabbits and birds alike.

Why we don't reprint the poem

The original text is the work of a known author (more on her below). You can find it on many pet loss sites and on the cards some vet clinics give to grieving clients. If you share it, credit her by name. Further down this page there is a short original poem written by the PetVids team that you are free to use.

Who wrote the Rainbow Bridge poem?

For about thirty years the Rainbow Bridge had no author. It was usually printed as "Anonymous," and several people claimed it. National Geographic counted more than a dozen claimants.

Edna was 82 when her authorship was confirmed. She had never published the poem herself and did not know how far it had travelled.

Is it based on Norse myth?

Some essayists have pointed out that a rainbow bridge between worlds appears in Norse mythology as Bifrost. That may be a coincidence or an echo. The pet version, with its meadow and its waiting animals, comes from Edna's poem.

What the Rainbow Bridge means to grieving owners

People read the Rainbow Bridge in different ways, and all of them are fine.

• As a belief. Some owners take it as a real picture of what happens to pets, often alongside their faith. If that question is on your mind, our guide to whether pets go to heaven sets out what several traditions say.
• As a comfort. Many people hold it more loosely, as the gentlest way they have found to think about where their pet is now.
• As a way to talk about it. "She crossed the Rainbow Bridge" can be easier to say out loud, and easier for a child to hear, than "she died."

The Rainbow Bridge for dogs and cats

The original poem was written for a dog, but it never names a species. Cat owners use it just as often. Some people picture their cat waiting in a patch of sun by the bridge rather than running across the grass, and that is the beauty of an image like this: you can make it fit the animal you knew.

If it doesn't help

Not everyone finds comfort in the Rainbow Bridge. Some people find it too sweet, or it doesn't match what they believe. That is normal too. Grief has no single right picture. Our guide to coping with pet loss has other ideas, along with free support lines you can call.

A short Rainbow Bridge poem you can share

We wrote this poem for anyone who wants words of their own to put in a card, a post or a memorial. It is an original poem by the PetVids team, and you are free to use it, with or without credit.

At the Edge of the Light

You ran ahead, the way you always did,

through grass that holds the last of the sun.

Your legs are young, your breath comes easy,

and every ache you carried is undone.

You stop where the light becomes a bridge

and look back once, the way you used to do

when I was slow to leave the porch.

Go on. I'll find my way to you.

Until then I'll keep the quiet things:

your bowl, your collar, the dent in the chair,

the sound of you at the door each night.

And when I come, be waiting there.

Written by PetVids. For a cat, swap "the porch" for "the windowsill."

Shorter lines for a card

• Run on ahead. I'll know the way.
• Wait for me by the bridge, my friend.
• Young again, and waiting in the sun.
• You crossed first. You always did.

For more lines like these, see our collection of pet loss quotes.

Ways to use the Rainbow Bridge in a tribute

If the image means something to you, there are small, simple ways to bring it into how you remember your pet.

1. Read it at a goodbye. A few words in the garden or at the scattering of ashes. Credit Edna Clyne-Rekhy if you read the original, or use the poem above.
2. Put a line in a sympathy card. If a friend has lost a pet, a short line plus their pet's name says more than a long message. Our guide on what to say when someone loses a pet can help.
3. Paint a small stone. A rainbow and the pet's name on a garden rock, set where they liked to lie.
4. Make a short video of them crossing it. Our Rainbow Bridge template shows your pet at the foot of a bridge of soft light. They pause halfway, look back at you, then run on into a sunlit meadow, with their name and dates on the last frame.

The memorial film is $89. You send 5 to 10 photos you already have, and it comes in vertical, square and widescreen, with a keepsake poster still to print or frame. If you're sending it to someone else, free gift delivery lets you pick the day it arrives. If it doesn't feel like them, we remake it, and if it still doesn't, you get your money back.

For more ideas, see our list of pet memorial ideas and pet memorial gifts.