Edit: The Last Good Day: The Dani McVety Story

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## The Woman on the Floor

She was 26, three months out of veterinary school, and a woman on her living room floor was crying so hard she couldn't breathe.

Not because her dog was dying. Because of how he was dying.

The emergency clinic had no time for her questions. The euthanasia was clinical, rushed, done on a cold metal table surrounded by other people's emergencies. Her dog was terrified. She was traumatized. And three weeks later, Dani McVety was standing in that same woman's living room, with her dog in his own bed, with a syringe.

That living room visit in Tampa in September 2009 was the first call of what would become Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice — the largest network of veterinarians dedicated entirely to end-of-life care for companion animals in the United States. Today it operates in 37 states with over 400 doctors, serves 13,000 families a month, and generates an estimated $35 million in annual revenue.

McVety built it without a business plan. Without a loan. Without anyone telling her this was a real company.

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## The Real Story

Dani McVety grew up in Tampa and spent years volunteering with human hospice patients before she ever applied to vet school. She didn't go into veterinary medicine because she loved animals more than other people. She went in because she had watched what a good death looked like — and what a bad one cost.

> "I saw how hospice gave people permission to grieve. I wanted to bring that to the human-animal bond."

She graduated from the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine in May 2009. By September of that year, she was working emergency medicine and noticing something: when families came in for end-of-life care, the clinic was too busy to give them what they needed. Time, space, honesty about what was happening. The staff did their jobs with compassion, but the system couldn't slow down.

She started taking house calls. A few at first. Then more.

> "People would cry on my shoulder and tell me this was the first time anyone had explained what was actually happening to their dog. Not because other vets didn't care. Because there was no time."

She didn't quit her ER job. Not right away. Lap of Love was a side gig — something she thought might grow into a small part-time practice.

She brought in Dr. Mary Gardner, her vet school classmate, in 2010. Gardner had a background in computer programming and helped build the software infrastructure that would later allow the business to scale beyond a single doctor. By 2012, they had franchised the model. By 2013, revenue was growing 50% year over year.

The business didn't scale because of marketing. It scaled because word spread. One family told another family. A vet in Arizona called. Then one in Colorado. Everyone had the same story: they had nowhere to send their clients when it was time.

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## The Numbers

McVety has never publicly disclosed exact revenue figures. But here's what we know:

- **Founded September 2009** — $0 outside capital
- **50% year-over-year growth** from 2013 through 2017
- **562% total revenue growth** from 2013 to 2017
- **Inc 5000 company**, 8-time recipient of the Gator 100 award
- **Estimated ~$35M annual revenue** today (Growjo estimate, 2024)
- **400+ doctors**, **37 states**, **13,000+ families served per month**
- **January 2020**: Cortec Group completed majority recapitalization with McVety and Gardner
- **January 2025**: McVety stepped down as CEO to be with her family (she has five children)

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## The Counterintuitive Thing

Here is what most people get wrong about this story: they assume McVety was driven by grief. By sadness. By the emotional weight of death every day.

She has said the opposite is true.

> "Veterinary end-of-life work is the only kind of veterinary medicine where the patient is not afraid. Because the owner is with them. They're in their bed. They're not at the vet."

Her veterinarians — many of whom came from burnout in conventional practice — report lower stress levels than they had in clinics. That's counterintuitive to anyone who assumes this work is sad. But McVety's argument has always been that the tragedy in veterinary medicine isn't the deaths. It's the lonely ones. The ones where nobody was paying attention. The ones where the family had to make a decision in 10 minutes because there were six more emergencies in the waiting room.

Lap of Love's veterinarians see families for an hour. Sometimes two. They explain what's happening. They talk about quality of life. They talk about timing. And when it's time, the dog is on its own bed, with its family, in the house where it lives.

That's not sad. That's the point.

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## The Recognition

McVety was named the **AVMA's 2022 Bustad Companion Animal Veterinarian of the Year** — one of the highest honors in veterinary medicine, recognizing outstanding work in promoting the human-animal bond. She was the youngest recipient of both the University of Florida's Distinguished Young Alumni Award (2013) and the Florida Veterinary Medical Association President's Award (2014). She was Pet Industry Woman of the Year in 2017.

She has been featured in *The New York Times*, *The Washington Post*, *Entrepreneur Magazine*, and on ABC's *The Doctors*. In 2022, the documentary *The Hardest Day* — which followed Lap of Love veterinarians through their work — was released, filmed by Pulitzer-nominated photojournalist Ross Taylor. Lap of Love waived all fees for the families filmed.

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## The End

McVety stepped down as CEO in January 2025. Dr. Mary Gardner took over as CEO. McVety said at the time that she wanted more time with her family. She has five children and a husband, Dominic. She remains a co-owner.

What she built — starting from a single living room in Tampa, Florida — is now a national institution. Not because she raised money. Not because a VC told her it was a good idea.

But because she sat on a woman's living room floor and decided that dying dogs deserved better than cold tables and rushing strangers.

That's the whole story. Everything else is just the numbers.

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*Story #30 — Dr. Dani McVety / Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice*

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