Cheyeanne Murphy's dogs may not have saved her life in a literal sense, but she believes they've saved her from going down a dark road and have made her life much more worth living.

Around 10 years ago, Cheyeanne's mother passed away. She was a young and seemingly healthy woman, but one day she learned she had cancer, and a few months later, she was gone.

"When my mom got diagnosed, I was definitely on a different path in life," Cheyeanne recalls. "I had a business that I was working way too many hours at. I was living somebody else's dream that wasn't mine, and I thought I had to, because that's what I had grown up to believe I was supposed to do with my life is make money. When my mom got diagnosed with cancer, I realized life can change in one day. You are not guaranteed any amount of time. You aren't guaranteed, really, anything."

 

She continues, "It sometimes comes across as horrible to people, but I always say my mom's death was the best thing and the worst thing that ever happened to me, because it forced a very young me to live extremely presently."

And so, with the help of her beloved dogs – Cash (now deceased) and later Notorious and Shady – Cheyeanne finally found her way out of the dark place of grief she was in and started learning to really live again.

"I had a career change. I moved. I ended a very long relationship. And I spent a whole entire year ‘deconstructing the onion,' figuring out who I was as a human and what I wanted out of life and where I wanted my life to go. I wanted to be happy and I wanted to make people happy. And I honestly, with every bone in my body, believe that is possible."