Posted by Management Account
on June 08, 2026
World Pet Memorial Day falls every year on the second Tuesday of June, and this day always makes us think about the pets we’ve loved and sadly lost.
Poseidon founder Linda has generously shared her story through a new lens, in an intimate one-on-one conversation where we talked about grief, loss and the incredible impact animals can have on our lives…long after they’re gone.
Q: Linda, people all over the world will be prompted to remember the pets they’ve loved and lost on World Pet Memorial Day.
With such a day on the horizon, can you tell us a little bit about your very special off-the-track horse, Cruz?
Linda: Cruz was a big, gentle thoroughbred - he was just this majestic kind of guardian of the paddock, and one of those incredibly responsive, intuitive horses. He had this quiet command, and he was so regal and elegant. He is one of the most beautiful horses I have ever seen.
Q: What are some of your favorite memories with Cruz that still make you smile today?
Linda: Gosh! Well, of course, he’s the reason I started Poseidon, but that’s a longer story! In terms of beautiful memories of him, just the responsibility he took to carry my daughter Emily around, and he just did his very best. It’s hard to isolate one thing, It's really more than the memories for me - it’s how I felt when I was with him. I’d hug him all the time, he just knew how beautiful he was and he was a really proud horse.
I think my favorite memory is just spending time with him in the paddock, and just basking in his energy, really. I mean, he won a lot of things as well - he won Supreme Led Thoroughbred at Sydney Royal back in 2013, which was very cool. My husband (and Poseidon co-founder) Peter led him around the Grand Parade at Sydney Royal, and Peter’s not a born horse person, so that was a real moment for me watching him do that with Cruz!
Q: And what about your dogs, because we know you’ve had a few smaller companions that have meant the world to you too!
Linda: I have had dogs all my life and they all hold a special place in my heart. But oh my goodness there is one dog that played a very important role in my life. My dog Sofia. And while this is really sad and it brings me to tears to talk about, Sofia really was the most loyal companion. When my daughter Molly died, Sofia didn’t leave my side for 24 hours. She just laid with me for a full day, completely still and silent. It was like she sensed I was in serious pain, and she just made it her job to stick to me like glue and look after me. Funny, I can talk about a lot of things without getting emotional, but when Sofia passed on, it was raw painful grief again made extra hard because of the memories associated with her and grieving the sudden loss of my daughter. It was and still is so hard not to cry thinking about her.
The love and devotion she showed to me was profoundly special. She was so, so loyal. And then my other favorite memory might seem an odd one, but it was spending her last day with her. It was her time, she was really struggling with her health by then and I spent the last day with her taking her to all her favorite spots on our property, and then we held her when she went.
That experience was such an honor. And as heartbreaking as it was, I wanted her to leave the world feeling safe and loved and return the gifts she had given to me. And so to be able to do that for her at home, outside surrounded by nature, in total peace and comfort meant the absolute world. Not every dog owner gets to do that, so I’m very grateful to have such a lasting, beautiful memory with Sofia.
And then there was Wilson. Oh, Wilson. Oh my goodness, he was just the funniest, kindest dog I've ever had in my life. He just loved life. He was just like this big, goofy dog. So smart, so athletic, but just so funny - he had no idea how big he was. He was a standard poodle, but he was built like a groodle! My favorite memory of Wilson is him just jumping into our bed and just taking over the whole bed and not realizing how much space he took up, bless him.
Q: When it comes to the animals you’ve had in your family, was there a particular human in the house that they each really attached themselves to?
Linda: (laughing) Oh, they all attach themselves to me. All of them do. Mabel and Oscar, my two dogs and Emily’s (my daughter) little dog, Alfie, sprint across the yard to run to me when I get home! They fight for prime position on my lap or chest when I am lying down. It's like they can't get close enough to me. So yeah, I tend to be the animal magnet at our place, which I obviously ADORE!
Q: And what did Cruz, Sofia and Wilson teach you about caring for animals, or even about caring for yourself?
Linda: I think for me, my animals have just inspired a sense of deep responsibility to look after them the best way I can, because they are so unbelievably selfless.
They don't ask us for anything. They just love us, every single day and we are their whole world. And especially with Sofia - that experience of her being there with me through such a difficult chapter of my life, that was a massive realization of just how much healing energy our pets can pour into us through the toughest times.
So, because of that, I always make sure that my animals can be surrounded by love, right up to the day they sadly pass on. It doesn't matter whether it's a horse or dog - as much as it’s so sad and so confronting to witness them leaving us, I’ve learned that it’s the most important thing. Being there for them at the end and making sure they don’t leave this world feeling scared, worried or alone is my absolute non-negotiable for all my pets.
Another thing my animals have done for me, honestly, is they really prepared me for motherhood! Because I learned it doesn't matter how tired I am, or cranky, or unwell…they've got to be fed, they’ve got to be looked after. There’s no other option. And so they taught me that they come before your needs, which literally when I had babies, it was the same thing! Their needs come before mine. So in my experience, pet ownership really is fantastic preparation for being a parent.
They've also taught me what unconditional love really means. They've taught me that they will hold a place for you where you feel safe when you need it most.
Gosh, I could talk all day about what they've taught me. They've taught me trust. They've also taught me how forgiving they are - and in the process, what a life-changing thing forgiveness and acceptance can be.
They've taught me what an honor and a privilege it is to have pets. They also remind you how wonderfully simple life can really be. Feed them well, keep them safe, keep them comfortable, spend quality time with them, play with them. That’s really it - it’s simple joy. They remind you that slowing down and just appreciating the moment is so important.
On a more basic level too, they really help you set routines and stick to them. It goes back to not having a choice but to meet their basic needs - so it really goes both ways: they help you appreciate the beauty of a spontaneous moment, but they also show you the positive impact healthy routines can have on your life. They require you to get up and about earlier, they force you to get your body moving, to get outside in the fresh air and sunlight - and there’s no better way to get the day started. I fully believe having animals not only makes us more empathetic and emotionally intelligent, but they make us healthier human beings too.
Finally they have taught me about responsibility and that as their owner, I need to make the best decisions for them because they are relying on me to do that.
Q: What brought on the initial interest in exploring gut health supplementation for your animals?
Linda: It really started when I had a serious health condition and I was bedridden for a long time. As a result of my illness, I suffered from cognitive dysfunction, I was having seizures and had tried everything to fix it, but I just accepted that's how my life would be. And then I went through the loss of Molly, and that’s when I started trying to find a way to feel better from within. I wanted to work on my health on a deeper level, rather than being caught up in traditional methods of dealing with grief and illness. Medication is absolutely vital at times in life, and I’m so thankful to the health professionals that helped me through that period, but I just knew deep down that I also wanted to address whatever was going on with me from the roots. And that’s when I started reading about gut microbes. Suddenly this topic of gut health caught my interest and I became totally obsessed, learning everything I could about it as quickly as possible.
At the same time as I was diving into all this, Cruz had started doing a lot of head shaking. He was having trouble being happy and calm under the saddle and maintaining weight. It became clear he was trying to cope, cope, cope and then he’d just bolt out of nowhere. He would grind his teeth a lot too - all these signs were pointing to him being stressed and not feeling great on the inside. I thought if I can fix my own health through the gut, what about horses?
And that's how the journey started. I started off very passionate about equine gut health, but when I got my dog Oscar, along with my other dog Wilson it made me think as well: if it can work for horses, then what about our dogs?
I worked with Ruth Hatton, who was an experienced canine nutritionist. I thought, I want to put him on the right path, right from the word go. I thought to myself: now is the time to apply these learnings to dogs.
Oscar never had any health conditions per se, but Wilson was suffering these recurring ear infections, and suddenly they were completely gone, within months of using the canine product. So that really lit a fire in me to get this product launched for all the dogs out there with gut problems. I had the confidence in what I was doing by then to really pursue this hard.
I also noticed that so many problems that dogs have seem to be accepted as normal or just part of a dog's normal challenges, example skin conditions, anxiety or anal gland problems, that all relied on some of sort of treatment. I wondered if there was another way.
Q: What are the similarities and differences between looking after your dogs vs the horses?
Linda: Very interesting question, because there are a lot of supplement brands out there that try to handle them in the same way with the same ingredients and approaches. I wanted to do it differently.
When it comes to horses, you’ve got to think bigger naturally - as they’re a bigger animal and with a very different digestive tract! If they’re not feeling well, it can impact the humans around them in a safety sense, in a performance way. An unhappy, uncomfortable horse can cause a lot of harm and damage, very quickly.
Whereas with our dogs, as owners, we do tend to let stuff slide a little bit because it doesn’t necessarily show up as an immediate safety hazard to us. It’s not in our faces as much as it is with the horses, but it should be. I look back now and think, wow, imagine if we had looked at this earlier. But all we can do is our best to educate as many people as possible, now that we know what we know.
With the dogs, it really shows up as pain points and health conditions that owners are really struggling to deal with. It's expensive and emotionally draining to see your dogs having recurrent health problems. I feel like dogs do mask a little bit of that, or maybe more to the point, we've accepted it as normal, and it's not. So the goal becomes: Let's try to avoid bad things happening in the first place. Gut health is a hugely proactive measure; you can start supporting it any time, but the earlier the better for the animal.
Q: Do you think generational norms are part of the problem?
Linda: Absolutely! We didn’t grow up understanding what is right and wrong for these animal’s nutritional needs, especially with the dogs. Many of us at Poseidon had working dogs growing up that were fed poor quality diets, and didn't get much extra attention to their health as they aged - forget about supplementation, it just wasn’t a thing! Tinned food and kibble was just what you did back then and that was kind of where it ended.
Q: How did your pets influence you then to actually start a business? Because it's one thing to get passionate about it and look after your own animals, it’s another thing entirely to dedicate significant resources and your entire life to creating a business in this space…
Linda: I have always been a passionate animal owner, who has been so lucky to have so many amazing animals in my life. When I had the opportunity to take what I had learnt about gut health and apply it to animals and give back to them, it was an obvious choice. Our beautiful Cruz was the initial motivation, but then that recurrent discomfort with Wilson with his ear infections motivated the canine range.. I felt myself losing all hope at one stage. It got to the point where he was in so much pain that he would just cry non-stop when I would try to clean his ears. I just remember thinking: there's got to be a better way.
By the time I started thinking about the canine range, I had already been so blown away about the impact of our formulations on our horses. So what motivated me for the horse product originally was my own experience healing my gut and seeing how incredible I could feel by supporting it daily.
But with the horses, I actually started with trying to FIND a good supplement first - I wasn’t necessarily thinking about starting my own brand at that time. So I was contacting companies and wanting to find out more about their gut health products. And I was just shocked at what I found - they would be full of molasses, or the staff couldn't explain why they used certain ingredients …a lot of them didn't even return my call.
I just got really frustrated. To me, when it comes to seeking help for my animals, not even getting a callback wasn’t good enough. And that really just lit a fire in me…I just couldn’t believe they weren’t getting back to me to explain the science behind their products…and then it hit me: it was because they actually had very little understanding on the subject or perhaps they didn't care enough.
I've always been a very determined person in life, and I won't accept average. Cruz, Sofia and Wilson were all such a big part of my own healing journey. I felt like I owed it to them to really pursue this.
I'm not a fence sitter. I don't sit back and accept poor health in my animals anymore. If something’s not right, I’m committed to doing things better and addressing the issue properly.
Q: You’ve got a Master’s in Health - did that play into your interest in animal gut care?
Linda: Sure, I've got a Master's in Health, but the crazy thing is I had never heard about microbes and their role in general wellness. That confused me…how are we not being told about this really important aspect of inner health when it has the power to impact so much? I’ll admit I was actually filled with rage reading about inflammation caused by sugars and all these things that people are totally unaware of, because there’s just not easy access to this information unless you go digging for it.
My illness had been so prolonged at that point, it had such a big, profound impact on my life. I was angry that I'd been lied to repeatedly that I just needed to be on medication alone…no one mentioned the role of gut health in what I was going through.
I was still very deeply in my grief, I don't know how I did it to be honest, but I did. And it was meant to be. And thank goodness, because now we're doing what we're doing and really disrupting this space with our focus on education and the science behind it.
Q: So you never really saw yourself starting a business like Poseidon before all that? And what about working with your husband, Peter?
Linda: Never, never, never, never. I was 50 when I started Poseidon. I mean, what made me think that I could do it? But on the same note, I actually reframe that instantly in my mind even now: what made me think that I COULDN’T? That’s just the kind of person I am. When I get an idea, I go for it.
Partnership with Peter has been amazing. If you'd asked me 10 years ago, I would have said you’re crazy. Back then I was struggling to get out of bed. I had terrible chronic fatigue, was still dealing with cognitive dysfunction, all those things, but it was just such an epiphany when we discovered it working for Cruz. We looked at each other and said “How can we not share this with the world?”
Q: And how did Peter react?
Linda: With his background in animal pharmaceuticals, he understood about manufacturing, compliance and product development. I still remember when I asked him to work with me on it full time. He just supported me and this dream the whole way through from day one. I think he hadn't seen me passionate about something for so long and he loved seeing me find that spark again. We work really well together, because we bring different skillsets. He brings the commercial side of running Poseidon, and I bring the heart, passion and pulse. Together, we’re just a couple of normal people that care a great deal about animals, and that’s really what it all comes down to.
Honestly, this is so wonderful to chat about and look back on, because ours is actually such a cool story. To think about where we were, and where we've come and where we're going. But it's just been dedication, and an unwavering belief in what we're doing.
I also think I turned my rage and frustration with the industry into a solution. It just fueled me the whole time. And that’s what makes a great business, right? You want to solve a problem for yourself first, and you just hope others out there can benefit from it too. Little did we know how many people were in the same boat as us.
We also knew early on that we were stepping on a few toes, so to speak. The level of pushback we got within the industry made us even more determined to press on, because I felt like we shone the light on something other companies didn’t like.
So we’ve come in and really turned up the heat when it comes to animal supplements, which forced others to raise their bars as well, and I love that. I’m the wrong person to go up against truthfully, because I will stop at nothing to make sure people know the truth about gut health and how to support it properly for these animals.
Q: There’s a lot of supplement brands we won’t name taking shortcuts with formulations, or in it just to capitalise on people’s desperation in order to make money. Imagine someone pointing the finger at Poseidon - what would you say to them?
Linda: I've always come from a very fair academic point of view, not from ego or arrogance. I will fight. I will fight for things I believe in. I will fight when people say the wrong things. Everything we do is fueled by unwavering belief and truly I believe as human beings, we've got a responsibility to make the world a better place for the animals we’ve chosen to domesticate.
I think just the fact that we see results and we get constant validation every single day from our customers - that's also the fuel for me. Sure, you can be fueled by the naysayers and the people that are against you or don't believe in it. But when you look at all the people that do, that's really powerful. That's the thing that constantly just keeps you going, letting you know there's more work to be done. It’s never finished, as far as I’m concerned.
Q: Do you ever think about all the things that have led you here and wonder if you’ve made the right decisions along the way?
Linda: I often think “why me?” about a lot of things that have happened in my life…but you know, it doesn’t really matter. They all led me to this moment. I’m here now and I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. How lucky am I to be able to look back and know along with all my team, I truly made a difference and as a result so many animals are living a better life.
Q: Last question, and this is an emotionally heavy one but do your best to answer:
If you could talk to Cruz, Sofia and Wilson today, what would you say to them?
Linda: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The gifts are endless and eternal and forever. So just thank you. You gave me the brightest days even through my darkest ones. I am so grateful. I always tried my best to give you the best care that I could with the information I had, but I didn’t have this information the whole time I had you. Now I do. And that’s why I want to share it with everyone.
