For The Love Of Riley

This is Riley. Riley and I need your help. Riley has Mitral Valve disease. Mitral Valve disease (MVD) is a degeneration of the heart’s mitral valve, one of four sets of valves in a dogs heart. As  the mitral valve degenerates, the valve no longer fully closes after each pumping action., allowing some blood to flow backwards through them from the ventricle back into the left atrium.The condition is progressive and over time the valve will continue to degrade until the heart can no longer compensate. The result of this is that the heart must work harder to supply blood to the body. This eventually will lead to congestive heart failure. Mitral Valve disease is one of the most serious heart ailments that can affect a dog. 

Riley blessed my life 9 years ago I had no idea how much and how great of an impact this little puppy would have on me. He changed not only my life, but my path in life. Riley and I began what would become an amazing journey together. What started with just some basic training soon developed into a passion and a love for the great sport of competitive dog obedience. 

Riley and I began on this journey together, training, travelling, and competing.  The accomplishments achieved by this little dog, are beyond anything I could have ever imagined. Fiercely shy, and timid to the core, Riley went out into that obedience ring, happy, ready to work, and ready to give me everything he had. Riley’s successes include many high in class wins, and several top dog in canada titles from 2012 - 2014. His hard work and dedication placed him in the ranks as the number one cavalier in Canada in 2014. Through this exciting training career, Riley has helped open many doors and new opportunities for me, both in my life, and in my career, and It is because of him I completely changed careers.

We are partners not only in life, but partners in sport. He is my best friend and a constant source of support. I am blessed to be able to spend every day with him. We are together 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. He is the store mascot at my job, and every day, makes people smile. He has a little brother who absolutely adores him, and a family who loves him so very very much. He impacts everyone who meets him, and leaves a footprint wherever he goes. He is truly loved by many. Riley has taught me so much about life, unconditional love and loyalty. He is  my guardian angel, my biggest supporter, and my very best friend. I never thought I could feel such a deep and profound love. I cant imagine my life without him. 

Riley’s only hope to overcome MVD is to have a life saving operation. There is only one Doctor in the world that does this surgery and it is done either in New York or Japan. Traveling to Japan is not an option for me, especially given Riley’s condition. My goal is to get him to New York for this procedure.

The operation is very expensive. A team of 6 veterinary specialists will be tending to Riley at any one time. It is a highly specialized surgery and this Doctor has a very high success rate. I really need your help. Riley has given me everything and now it’s time for me to give back. Every donation, regardless of how small is a big step towards meeting our goal of $40,000. All we need is 4000 people to donate $10 each. Please share this story to everyone you know. Help us help Riley.