Daily Inspiration #104: Two-legged Dog Gives Hope to Disabled Vets

Two-legged dog Faith

For several years, Jude Stringfellow and her Lab-chow mix have toured the country with a simple message: Faith walks.

Born without front legs to a junkyard dog around Christmas 2002, Faith the puppy was rejected and abused by her mother. She was rescued by Rueben Stringfellow, now an Army E-4 specialist, who had been asked to bury other puppies in the litter.

“Can we fix her?,” Stringfellow, then 17, asked his mom. “No, but maybe we can help her,” she said.

So Rueben turned Faith over to his mother, English professor Jude Stringfellow. At first the family had to carry Faith to keep her off her chest and chin. But with peanut butter and practice, Faith learned to walk on her two hind legs.

Since that day on March 22, 2002, Faith has done the talk show circuit, gone on tour with Ozzy Osbourne and been named an honorary Army sergeant. Jude Stringfellow has become a motivational speaker, written two books about Faith and is working on a third, “Faith Walks.”

They get more than 200 letters and e-mails a day, run a Web site and make dozens of appearances every year, including stops at veterans’ hospitals across the country to cheer injured soldiers.

Read the rest of Faith’s story at MSNBC