Cheyenne Murphy’s dogs may not have saved her life in a literal sense, but she believes they have saved her from going down a dark path and made her life that much more worth living.

About 10 years ago, Cheyenne’s mother passed away. She was a young and apparently healthy woman, but one day she found out that she had cancer and, a few months later, she disappeared.

“When my mom was diagnosed, she was definitely on a different path in life,” Cheyenne recalls. “I had a business where I worked too many hours. I was living someone else’s dream other than mine, and I thought I had to do it, because that’s what I grew up believing I was supposed to do with my life: make money. When my mom was diagnosed with cancer, I realized that life can change in a day. You are not guaranteed any amount of time. In reality, you are not guaranteed anything.”

He quotes: “Sometimes people think it’s stupid, but I always say that my mother’s death was the best and worst thing that ever happened to me, because it forced me to live younger and younger in the present.”