About Lap of Love

“I leave an appointment with a trail of grieving people in my wake, and I feel a glow of satisfaction and rightness and karmic return because I know that I have done good and profound work.”
~ Lap of Love Hospice Veterinarian

A passionate network of nationwide veterinarians

Viewing all Vets

We believe all pets deserve peaceful end-of-life experiences

Lap of Love is a network of veterinarians around the country with the goal of empowering every owner to care for their geriatric pets. Our philosophy centers around the human-animal bond and the need for that bond to be as undisturbed as possible during this most difficult time. The desire to bring this important service to families across the United States is slowly being realized as additional veterinarians begin working under the same philosophy. Lap of Love is honored to have some of the most compassionate and empathetic vets working with us.

Creation story

2009

Dr. Dani McVety started Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice shortly after graduating from veterinary school while practicing emergency medicine in her hometown of Tampa, FL. After helping countless families through the loss of their pets, she felt an immense inspiration to combine her previous experience as a human hospice volunteer with her love of people and a desire to make the experience of losing a pet as peaceful as it can possibly be.

2010

Lap of Love grew quickly as word spread about a new way for pet parents to say goodbye. Dr. McVety began receiving calls and emails from families and veterinarians nationwide looking for similar services in their area. It was quickly apparent that Lap of Love was meant to be bigger than just Tampa, Florida! Dr. McVety contacted her good friend and veterinary school classmate, Dr. Mary Gardner, to help expand Lap of Love nationwide. Dr. Gardner immediately felt the connection with Lap of Love’s service and joined as co-founder, applying her decade of software design experience to lead the development of the company’s proprietary practice management software.

2018

Lap of Love expands to serve 30 states across the country.

Lap of Love ranks 19 on the Gator100, a list of the world’s fastest-growing companies led by University of Florida graduates.

Lap of Love receives the first-ever Innovative Practice of the Year award from the Veterinary Innovation Council, a division of the North American Veterinary Community. Lap of Love is awarded Best in Show by the Veterinary Innovation Council for receiving more votes than any nominee in any category.

Lap of Love ranks 1956 on the 2018 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America.

2020

As COVID descended upon the world, Lap of Love quickly rolled out a Telehospice service, providing telemedical advice to families nationwide via an in-depth Quality of Life conversation with our hospice veterinarians.

Lap of Love’s team grows to over 200 doctors nationwide!

As of 2020, Lap of Love has been honored to sit at the bedside of more than 250,000 pets and their families, assisting in the peaceful and loving transition of euthanasia.

Lap of Love provides over 149 hours of end-of-life care lectures at industry conferences and 30 hours of lectures to veterinary colleges nationwide.

Lap of Love ranks 19 on the Gator100, a list of the world’s fastest-growing companies led by University of Florida graduates.

2021

As of 2021, Lap of Love has been honored to sit at the bedside of more than 400,000 pets and their families, assisting in the peaceful and loving transition of euthanasia.

Lap of Love launches dedicated Pet Loss Support services for anyone who has experienced the loss of a pet.

Lap of Love launches a Senior Pet Care blog.

Lap of Love provides over 130 hours of end-of-life care lectures at industry conferences and 40 hours of lectures to veterinary colleges nationwide.

Lap of Love ranks 87 on the Gator100, a list of the world’s fastest-growing companies led by University of Florida graduates.

2022

Lap of Love ranks 61 on the Gator100, a list of the world’s fastest-growing companies led by University of Florida graduates. This marks the 8th consecutive year Lap of Love has been on the Gator100, the ONLY company to achieve this feat!

Lap of Love is featured in the award-winning documentary “The Hardest Day.” The film focuses on the power of the human-animal bond in its last moments and those who help navigate along the way.

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Pets are our best friends. They pick us up when we are down, and they never, ever take a day off from being by our side. And this is why pets deserve a peaceful and personal end-of-life experience. This is why we help them leave this earthly existence the way they want to—in the comfort of their homes, in the warm embrace of their favorite people.

It's an honor to provide pets with peaceful end-of-life experiences.

Because pets are family. That's why we do this.

Any veterinarian who chooses to dedicate his or her life to the practice of veterinary hospice and euthanasia is incredibly special. This may not be an easy role to play in our society, but we all respond the same way when asked why we do this: because pets are family, and this is an honor. At Lap of Love, our nationwide network of doctors is in constant communication with each other. Not only are we continually discussing new medical protocols for achieving the best possible outcomes (whatever that may be) for our patients, but we are also the industry leaders in this new and evolving field of veterinary medicine. Plus, we're animals lovers, too—we've dedicated our lives to helping the creatures we share this planet with. And yes, we know what it feels like to lose a family member… grief is grief, no matter what species it is!

Our founders

Dr. Dani McVety

Founder and CEO

In addition to her role as a hospice veterinarian and Founder & CEO of Lap of Love, Dani McVety is a speaker, consultant, author, and host for PetCareTV. With a deep love for the human-animal bond, Dr. Dani enjoys just about anything that has to do with pets! After graduating from college, she practiced emergency medicine and gained a greater understanding of how to help families at a time in which they felt most helpless. This has become her greatest fulfillment in veterinary medicine: helping to ease the stress and fear of the people who love their animals. Already an accomplished entrepreneur before vet school graduation, Dr. Dani partnered with Dr. Mary Gardner about one year after founding Lap of Love. Together they have grown the company into one of the most respected networks of doctors in the veterinary profession, setting the standard for end-of-life care higher than it has ever been before. Dr. Dani graduated from the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine and is the youngest recipient of the college’s Distinguished Young Alumni Award (2013), the Florida Veterinary Medical Association’s President’s Award (2014), and most recently, the Pet Industry Woman of the Year (2017).

Dr. Mary Gardner

Co-Founder and CIO

There is nothing better to Dr. Gardner than a dog with a grey muzzled dog or skinny old cat! Her professional goal is to increase awareness and medical care for the geriatric veterinary patient and to help make the final life stage to be as peaceful as possible, surrounded with dignity and support for all involved.

Dr. Mary Gardner didn’t grow up hoping to become a veterinarian. After graduating from the University of Miami, she began working as a trainer for an enterprise wide order management software. After learning the intricacies of the software and the variety of ways different businesses used it, she moved into a Business Architect role where she led the design of new software initiatives. Her innate talent for understanding logistics in a client-centric organization developed a unique skill set for a veterinarian. After 10 years in software she found herself longing for something different and more meaningful – the path she selected was to become a veterinarian. She completed her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine in 2008 from the University of Florida. She worked in general medicine at a veterinary clinic in south Florida for two years before discovering her niche in end of life care.

Dr. Gardner is a published author for many articles and a textbook, speaks all around the world on geriatrics and end of life care and was voted 2020 VMX Small Animal Speaker of the year!

Join our team

It's a calling as much as it is a career

We do this because we're naturally drawn to celebrating the amazing powers of the human-animal bond. And for us, there's no better way to honor that than to ensure pets have a peaceful end-of-life experience.

View Lap of Love opportunities

Dr. Mary

Dr. Dani

Care coordinators loving their job!

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Have questions? Give us a call. One of our care coordinators would love to help.

(855) 933-5683