Duna
Duna was more than my dog. She was part of my everyday life.
I loved having her with me, and whenever I could, I planned what I was doing so she could come with me.
She knew when I was coming home. She knew the sound of my car, and somehow she always seemed to know when I was close. No matter what she was doing, by the time I came down the road, she would be at the front door waiting for me.
One day, I came home from work.
Duna wasn't at the door.
I knew immediately that something was wrong, although I was still trying to convince myself there had to be another explanation. I didn't want to believe what that absence might mean.
Then I found her beside my bed.
She couldn't stand. There was saliva around her mouth. For a moment, everything else seemed to disappear. I remember looking at her and barely being able to process what I was seeing. I tried to get a response from her, gave her some water and gently opened her mouth to see whether something was blocking it.
I didn't know what was happening. I only knew I had to do something.
I didn't even change out of my work clothes. I picked her up, carried her straight to the car and left.
My veterinarian was about 45 minutes away. I called him while I was driving and told him I was coming. I thought Duna had ingested something toxic, but I didn't know exactly what had happened. I only knew I needed to get her there as quickly as possible.
When we arrived, they started treating her immediately. She was given oxygen and intravenous fluids, but she was already extremely weak.
I stayed on the floor beside her, with her head resting on my lap.
My veterinarian was also a friend. While we waited to see whether Duna would respond to treatment, I kept asking questions.
What did he think had happened? Was she going to be all right? Was there anything else they could do?
I was looking for reassurance in every answer. I wanted him to tell me something that would make the situation feel less serious than it looked. He wasn't being negative, but I wasn't hearing the answer I desperately wanted to hear.
The preparedness gap Daniel did not know existed
As we talked, he explained that with an intoxication emergency, what can sometimes be done depends on what has been ingested, the circumstances and how much time has passed.
I remember thinking, why didn't I know this? Why had nobody ever told me?
At that moment, I wasn't thinking about cost or anything else. I just wanted Duna to come back home with me.
I had always believed I was prepared. I kept fresh water in the car for her. I carried an emergency kit. I stayed on top of her veterinary care. If something didn't seem right, I called my veterinarian.
And yet I was there with her head on my lap, learning things I had never known before.
Why wasn't I prepared for this?
Duna passed away in my arms.
For the next few days, I barely went anywhere. I took time off work and stayed at home. Everything had happened so quickly that it was difficult to process.
And underneath the grief was something else.
Guilt.
I know I did everything I knew to do. I got Duna to veterinary care as quickly as I could. I know I will never be able to prove that doing something differently would have changed what happened.
But I genuinely believe the outcome could have been different.
That belief has stayed with me.
The years between
As the days went by and I started seeing people again, they would ask about Duna.
People were used to seeing us together. Suddenly she wasn't there.
When I explained what had happened, some people told me about similar experiences involving their own pets.
That was when I realised what had happened to Duna wasn't something that had happened only to me.
But I didn't do anything with that realization.
At the time, I didn't want another dog. I couldn't imagine putting myself through the pain of loving another animal that deeply and one day having to lose them.
So life moved on.
Years passed.
Zeus
Then Zeus came into my life.
And with him, everything I had learned from Duna came back.
This time, I already knew the gap existed.
I knew that if something happened, I didn't want my first reaction to be discovering what I should have had after I already needed it.
So I started looking for something I could buy and keep ready.
I searched online. I looked internationally. I looked for a kit, a system, anything specifically designed so I could be prepared for an intoxication emergency before it happened.
I couldn't find what I was looking for.
And that was the part I found difficult to understand.
The things themselves weren't the problem. The things my veterinarian had spoken about years earlier already existed.
I kept thinking about the emergency kit I had always carried in my car.
Nothing inside an emergency kit has to be invented for the kit to make sense. The individual things already exist. What matters is that someone has thought about what might be needed and put it together before the emergency happens.
That was what I wanted for Zeus.
Not something complicated.
Not something I had to start searching for once something had already gone wrong.
I wanted to be ready.
And when I realised I couldn't find what I believed should exist, I decided to do something about it.
Building what Daniel could not find
That decision started a much longer process.
At first, I was only trying to solve the problem for myself and Zeus. The things my veterinarian had spoken about years earlier already existed, so I put together my own portable kit for Zeus.
I showed it to my veterinarian and talked him through what I had done. The response was positive, and as I continued speaking with veterinarians and getting feedback, I started to realise that this could be useful beyond my own situation.
That was when the idea of turning it into something more serious began.
As the idea developed, I realised the physical kit could only be one part of it. I had spent time learning about common intoxication emergencies, so I understood what I had put together and how it was intended to be used. But someone else might not have that same knowledge.
And I wasn't a veterinarian. If I was going to take this beyond something I had made for Zeus, I wanted the guidance to come from veterinary professionals, not from me.
That was when the guided app became part of the idea.
From there, the more I worked on it, the more complete I wanted to make it. I brought in veterinary input, worked through how the physical kit and app should function together, explored safety and regulatory requirements, contacted suppliers and manufacturers, built professional relationships, developed the brand, established the company in the United States and pursued patent protection.
The original idea stayed the same. What changed was how much more complete it became as I learned, developed it and brought the right people into it.
Arkadia Pet Care / Purpose
What had started as something I wanted for Zeus had become Arkadia Pet Care.
I couldn't change what happened to Duna. What I could do was make sure I didn't ignore what that experience had taught me.
I wish I had known before it was too late.
Daniel V. DariasFounder & CEOArkadia Pet Care
