Riley's Story

In honor of Riley (2009–2025)

The Beagle who started it all

Riley was a rescue beagle. Three years old when he was paralyzed for the first time.

One minute he was himself — nose to the ground, tail up, impossible to tire out. The next, his back legs wouldn't work. We carried him into the vet not knowing if we'd carry him back out.

The surgeon was honest. Ten thousand dollars for emergency back surgery, and even then, no guarantees. We were newly married. We didn't have ten thousand dollars. We didn't have one thousand dollars. What we had was a stack of credit cards and a dog who was looking at us like he trusted us to figure it out.

So we figured it out. We spread the charges across every card we had and signed the papers.

Riley came home.

Four times. Three surgeries. Thirty thousand dollars.

It happened again a year later. And again. And again.

Four paralysis episodes. Three back surgeries. More than thirty thousand dollars in vet bills by the time it was over. Each time, the same choice. Each time, the same answer.

But it was in those waiting rooms that this company was born.

Because while we were sitting there waiting for Riley, we weren't the only family in the room. Over and over, we'd watch another family get the same news we got — and watch them realize they couldn't say yes. Not because they didn't love their dog. Because they couldn't afford to.

We went home with Riley. They went home without.

That's the moment I couldn't stop thinking about. That's the moment Riley's Candles started, even if I didn't know it yet.

The candle company that wasn't really a candle company

In 2017, I started making candles in Traverse City, Michigan, and selling them with a promise: every candle sold would help fund emergency surgery for a dog whose family couldn't cover it.

No foundation. No bureaucracy. No paperwork that takes six months. A family calls. We answer. The dog goes into surgery.

Riley was the Chief Beagle Officer. His face was on the logo. His story was on every candle. People didn't buy candles because they needed candles — they bought them because they wanted Riley's family, and families like Riley's, to have a shot.

By 2022, we were funding our first surgeries through the business. By 2025, we had helped save more than 100 dogs. Dogs like Bruce, who got hit by a car and spent eight weeks in a cast. Dogs like Lil Bit, whose owner has dementia and whose dog is her lifeline. Dogs like Bo, a service dog in training who lost a leg but not his spirit. Dogs like Scoot, paralyzed as a puppy, who got a wheelchair and a forever home and his own candle.

Riley didn't save those dogs. The people who bought candles did. But Riley is the reason any of it exists.

June 2025

Riley passed away in June of 2025. He was sixteen years old.

He lived a full life. A longer life than any of us thought possible after that first surgery. He saw a lot of Lake Superior. He ate a lot of things he wasn't supposed to eat. He was loved every single day.

And he lived long enough to see what his story became.

I won't pretend it hasn't been hard. I'll miss him for the rest of my life. But I also know this: Riley lived because his family could afford to save him. That's not true for most dogs. And it's the whole reason Riley's Candles exists.

The mission doesn't end

Riley's gone. The mission isn't.

Every candle still saves a life. Every subscription still funds surgeries. Every custom order for a golf club or a corporate event still ends with a story — a dog somewhere, going home with their family, because someone lit a candle in his name.

We've also started something new in his honor: Memorial Gift Boxes, for the families whose stories ended differently than ours. Because the families who couldn't save their dog deserve a place to put their grief too. And the families sending a candle to a friend who just lost their best friend deserve a way to say I loved them too.

That's what Riley's Candles is now. A candle company, yes. But mostly a way of saying: no dog should die because their family can't afford to save them. And no dog should be forgotten.

In honor of Riley

2009–2025. Rescue beagle. Chief Beagle Officer. The reason this exists. The reason it continues.

Every candle saves a life.

— Josh Hart, Founder
Riley's Candles · Traverse City, Michigan