Courtesy of faiththedog.net

A young Faith

An e-mail currently making the rounds includes photos of a two-legged dog gamely hopping through a life that seems to include a lot of public appearances. The little dog looks happy, with its tongue lolling out of its mouth. In some of the pictures it is wearing an orange therapy-dog vest.

The people in the photographs appear to be amazed, impressed or charmed, depending on your interpretation of the expressions on their faces as they watch her walking almost upright on two hind legs.

Maybe you've received one of those widely circulated e-mails. The subject line says, "A dog named Faith."

I assumed the e-mail was some kind of joke, like the clearly faked e-mails, circulated several years ago, showing a grinning man holding a 75-pound cat. I assumed Faith was created by someone who knows how to digitally alter photographs and circulate them on the World Wide Web.

Faith, however, is no fraud.

She lives with Jude Stringfellow in Oklahoma City. You can read about her at www.faiththedog.net. It claims there have been 1.3 million visitors to date. Faith has been on television shows and in newspaper stories. The truth of her existence is even confirmed on the Snopes.com Web site, which verifies or debunks urban legends. The only error in the e-mail was the sex of the dog, erroneously reported as male.

The Faith e-mail had no contact information, but I e-mailed Ms. Stringfellow through the Faith Web site and she called me from Oklahoma.

Faith is now 5 years old, weighs 27 pounds and is 37 inches tall when she stands on her hind legs. Faith looks nothing like her mother, who was a black Chow Chow. Faith looks like she might have some yellow Labrador retriever in her bloodlines.

Ms. Stringfellow's son rescued the 3-week-old puppy on Jan. 21, 2003. Reuben, 17 at the time, saw an outdoor guard dog with a litter of puppies. Some were dead, and he thought the mother dog was trying to kill a runty yellow puppy. He snatched the pup, shoved it into his jacket and ran home. Only then did he discover the pup had only three legs -- two in back and one badly deformed leg in the front.

Why save such a puppy when healthy "normal" puppies and dogs are killed in shelters and pounds every day? Look at the puppy pictures on the Web site and you'll see why Ms. Stringfellow and her three children fought for Faith's life. The battle started with three weeks of round-the-clock bottle feeding.

Faith's veterinarian said she was born with only three legs. The non-functioning front leg had to be amputated after it atrophied when the dog was 7 months old.

So, what to do for a dog with no front legs?

There are groups and organizations that help pet owners help handicapped pets. There are doggie wheelchairs for dogs with paralyzed back legs, "But no one had anything that could help a dog with no front legs," Ms. Stringfellow said.

So she and her children worked with Faith. At first they put her on a little skateboard so she could get used to movement. Then they used treats to coax her up onto her hind legs. Ms. Stringfellow said it took about six months to teach her to walk.

"We let her be a dog and she is happy and loving," Ms. Stringfellow said. "She loves people and she loves going out to meet people. Faith is not handicapped. She just has special needs."

Faith and Ms. Stringfellow make many public appearances, and those appearances are not free.

Ms. Stringfellow said she was employed as a teacher when Faith came into her home. She quit that job "because they wouldn't let me bring Faith to school" and she felt she couldn't leave the helpless puppy home alone for hours on end.

So now Ms. Stringfellow is trying to support herself and her family by reverting to something she used to do -- motivational speaking. Her fee is $1,500 to $2,500 plus expenses, and she is trying to establish a foundation for schools and nonprofits that want a visit from Faith but can't afford those prices.

"I don't want people to think I am exploiting our dog," Ms. Stringfellow said. She's just trying to make a living. Her daughters are now 19 and 18, and Reuben, 22, recently deployed to Iraq.

So that's the story of the two-legged dog in the e-mails.