More: She has gotten me through some rough times. When I was diagnosed with cancer in 2016 I told my husband that I wanted a dog (our previous dog had died a few months before and he said we were done with dogs). But ... you get anything you want with a cancer diagnosis so we started going to the local SPCA. Mark is the one who picked her out and told friends and family that she was our "cancer dog." Mark died suddenly of a heart attack in 2018. Tess has been my ongoing gift from him.