A friend of mine — actually, he’s a member of the Master Key Coaching Program — forwarded an email to me today. Usually, I don’t open emails that people are forwarding. I think that many of us are all too familiar with how that works out. Against my “better judgement,” I opened it anyway.

It was an email about a dog. A two-legged dog. You see, this dog, Faith, was born with only two legs. What a way to start life! Nobody wanted him, not even his mother.

This is his story.

I am going to include the entire story here, pictures and all. Before I do that, though, I want to point out that this story is 100% true!

As with many emails that people forward, such as the sundry political diatribes that make the rounds and are purported to be written by someone famous or even the ‘Bill Gates read the Master Key System‘ rumor, they are often proven to be false, or at the very least mostly factually inaccurate.

A good place to check the veracity of stories that you hear online or via email is Snopes.com. And that’s what I did: I checked Snopes.

Yup! This story about Faith is true!

Thus, without further ado, here is a story that will make you smile a little, make you cry a lot, and give you inspiration by the ton. Enjoy!

This is ‘Faith’

This dog was born on Christmas Eve in the year 2002. He was born with three  legs — two healthy hind legs and one abnormal front leg, which needed to be  amputated. He of course could not walk when he was born. Even his mother did not want him.

His first owner also did not think that he could survive. Therefore, he was thinking of “putting him to  sleep.”

By this time, his present owner, Jude Stringfellow, met him and wanted  to take care of him.

She was determined to teach and train this dog to walk by himself.  Therefore she named him Faith.

In the beginning, she put Faith on a surf board to let him feel the movements. Later, she used peanut  butter on a spoon as a lure and reward for him to stand up and jump around. Even the other dog at home helped to encourage him to walk. Amazingly, after only six months, like a miracle, Faith learned to balance on his two hind legs and jump to move forward. After further training in the snow, he now can walk like a human being.

Faith loves to walk around now. No matter where he goes, he just attracts all the people around him.

He is now becoming famous on the international scene. He has appeared in various newspapers and on TV shows.

There is even one book entitled With a Little Faith being published  about him. He was even considered to appear  in one of the Harry Potter movies.

His present owner Jude Stringfellew has  given up her teaching post and plans to take him around the world to teach that even without a perfect body, one can have a “perfect soul.”

In life there are always undesirable things. Perhaps one will feel better if one changes the point of view from another direction.

And that, my friends, is Faith. Faith the dog.

Take from that story what you will. Perhaps you’ll take from it the idea that you have to use mind over matter. Others will say that with adversity comes opportunity or the seeds of greatness.

What I saw was this: We are all dealt certain cards in life, both good and bad, and our aim should be to use what we got to get what we want.

If Faith did, don’t you think that you can, too?