My son found Faith. She had been born three weeks before, and was very small – probably the runt. She had no front arm on the right side. She had a left arm that was upside down and backwards placed at the shoulder, rather than at the front of the body. That limb had grown but did not have a joint where the elbow would be, and it had seven toes. It was a mangled mess. We’re not sure what went wrong. Probably the mother, Princess, had a uterine infection.

My son Reuben’s best friend Jonathan had called him and said, “We have to jump a fence at my mom’s flea market and bury some of the puppies that my mom’s dog had.” Reuben was to passing the dead puppies through the fence to Jonathan when he heard Faith whimper and scratch at something. He went over and found the mother dog suffocating her.

We think Faith had probably been too small to suckle, and so her mother tried to put her down naturally. For about 10 minutes the mother would lay on her and then get back up to see if she was dead, and then lay on her, over and over again. By the time my son found Faith, she was in a state of exhaustion and probably fear.

He knew it was probably natural, and probably what happened to the other puppies, but he didn’t like that. He kicked Princess off of Faith, put Faith under his jersey, and jumped back over the fence.

We actually didn’t name her for quite a long time. I called her ‘Yellow Dog’ for a while, and still sometimes do. She was about three months old when she decided to walk on her own, and my daughter suggested ‘Faith.’

Before Faith came into our life, my kids had gone through four or five years of me battling for custody of them, and their father had actually given away or killed 50 animals in their lives. At first I didn’t want to get too attached to Faith. I did not want to be responsible for another animal dying. Luckily she made it, and surprised us all.

A Miracle In Training

It was not easy to train Faith to walk upright. We’d never seen a dog walking before, and we didn’t understand how it would work. The back of her legs looked like rabbit legs, so we decided to teach her to sit up on the longer hunches, like a rabbit, rather than on the ball of her foot, like a normal dog. Then we trained her to balance by using peanut butter on the end of a spoon. If she balanced and kept her head up, she would get rewarded.

After she learned to sit up, she began hopping to us, and if she hopped, she was rewarded, not only with peanut butter, but also with Gummy Bears because we could throw them at her.

It started to progress from hopping to walking when we stuck her out in the snow one day. She was staring at us probably thinking, ‘You’re kidding me,’ but then she stood up and hopped to us to get out of the snow, because it was cold. The hopping went on for several weeks until she was bounding and hopping pretty good.

Around that time I was fostering a little Corgi puppy. If you know anything about Corgis, you know they herd sheep and cattle. One day he ran behind Faith and bit her on the heel and took off. Faith was not happy about it, so she just ran after him. None of us taught her, she just ran after him. We were all quite shocked. It was my son’s eighteenth birthday, and he couldn’t have asked for a better gift.

People ask now if she can do any tricks, and I think, ‘Gee, walking on two legs isn’t good enough for them?’ She doesn’t catch sticks, and she won’t catch balls, but she will catch food. (laughs)

Faith’s Horizon

Like I said on Montel Williams, Faith doesn’t have any problems with her hips yet, but just like any other dog, she may face problems when she’s older.

Veterinarians from around the world who have checked her out say that they don’t understand why or how she walks upright. The muscles that surround the spine have actually changed to the point that they support the means by which she’s walking. It’s either a miracle or the natural effect of evolution. Whatever you want to call it, it’s amazing.

Faith’s Military Occupational Specialty

Faith is very sweet. She’s actually a very patient and calm dog. It’s almost like she knows people are gaining something by being with her. She will actually see someone in a wheelchair or someone crying and go up to them.

She was even commissioned as a US Army Sergeant out of Fort Louis in Seattle, Washington. Her MOS is entertainment, and her job is to make people happy. She actually outranks my son, who is now a private first class in the army.

Keeping Faith

I was working as a teacher when we got Faith, and because they wouldn’t let me take her to school even though she needed help, I went ahead and quit. I was still working, but not as much. We just had to have faith that everything would work out financially. It did.

She’s changed my life in many ways. If I see someone who is handicapped, I will be more apt to go up and open a door as opposed to letting them do it themselves.

I wasn’t always as compassionate as I needed to be. Now I am.

*****

If you enjoyed this story, you will also enjoy Tillman The Skateboarding Bulldog [1] and She Walks: Faith The Miracle Dog [2]

Visit Faith's official website [3] and buy the book With A Little Faith [4].

Jude Stringfellow is currently booking motivational speaking. Contact Jude [5].