This reminded me of the ending of a creative no-fiction story I wrote several years ago, based on my experience when the dog I'd had since age six died (I lived on a farm at the time).

"All things that exist now have been before and will be again.

Everything changes yet stays the same. Like this forest, trees grow, and trees die, but the forest remains. The birds and the squirrels and the deer and the multitude of other life live die, and others are born to take their place. Trees are cleared, and a pond is built, the pond fades away and the forest returns. A tree dies, and another takes its place. Through it all, though, the forest remains.

I realized then that nothing truly dies. Susie will still live, in the grasses and trees that spring to life, feeding where Susie is buried. She’ll still live. I took comfort in that thought. Susie would live in my memory, and in all the life that replaced her body with new life. Nothing ever truly dies.

Susie was the puppy I hadn’t wanted, yet I knew I’d never forget her; she’ll always live, only in a different form- in all the things that feed on her body, the plants that will grow from her body’s nutrients as it becomes, again, soil. All the animals and insects that feed or live on the plants will have some small part of Susie within them. Life is a cycle, as the Teacher said, and all that is has been before and will be again. And all things are a part of that cycle. Nothing is ever truly lost.

All things have their season.