Special pup finds kindred spirit, home

Hawking wasn't going to be the dog for everyone.

Part pit bull, part basenji maybe, because of his big, radar ears. He was born with some condition that made him drag his hind legs. But Hawking was game.

If you happened by the Peaceable Kingdom Pet Rescue in Wynnewood last fall you could see the puppy hopping after the other dogs like a baby kangaroo.

Diana Mutz, who fosters animals with her husband, Robin, and their three children, noticed that Hawking was a quick study soon after she brought him from the shelter in August.

He was housebroken within a week. He learned to take treats gently, and he even began to put a little weight on his spindly back legs, chasing after balls, even if the other dogs always got there first.

She put a notice up on Petfinder.com, hoping to find Hawking a good and permanent home. Some people called. One woman wanted to try taking him, but she lived three flights up in her building.

Months went by. Then, the week before Christmas, an e-mail arrived from a family in Ardmore. Their 7-year-old boxer, Buster, had died of a brain tumor, and the three children were still heartbroken. What caught the eye of their mother, a preschool teacher named Cheri Burns, was that Hawking had a congenital defect.

"That sounds bizarre," she wrote, but our youngest has a congenital defect . . . and she is our biggest fan of animals. . . . No one really knows she has a 'disability' because she gives it her all, but [moves] a little slower than most. If he is still available, I would like to find out more about Hawking. "

That was Dec. 20. Three days later Cheri and Eric Burns were checking out Hawking, learning that he was missing two vertebrae but otherwise healthy. That night they showed their youngest daughter, 9-year-old Becca, Hawking's video on Petfinder.com.

It was a music video of sorts - Hawking, all head and ears, investigating his surroundings as the Beach Boys sang "I Get Around. "

That's all she needed. "I haven't even met him and I love him," Becca said as they drove to meet Hawking on Christmas Eve.

Before they could take him home, the Burnses needed to stop at the Delaware County SPCA, the dog's official owner. In June someone had left him in an alley in Upper Darby. Executive director Nicole Wilson took him home for evaluation. Her fiance named the dog after Stephen Hawking, the theoretical physicist with the neurologic disorder known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

"The dog had been covered in alley nastiness," Wilson said. "He was not very old at all, maybe eight weeks. Whoever put him there probably had the mother and siblings and just couldn't deal with his level of disability. "

When the Burnses arrived at the SPCA, it was closed for adoptions. Becca started crying.

Christmas Eve, a tearful girl, a special-needs pup? The shelter bent the rules and began the paperwork.

Hawking and Becca have bonded ever since.

"Sit! "

Hawking sat, front legs splayed, back legs twisted behind him. He is brindled, with white spots on his paws and chest, about 43 pounds, and all heart.

The girl bounced a tennis ball on her blue living room rug and Hawking bounded after it, so fast his back legs barely touched the floor.

"Release!" she commanded softly, and Hawking dropped the ball. She placed a piece of kibble on the rug. He went for it fast.

As the girl and her dog repeated this trick over and over, Becca's parents described how she worries about Hawking, how she winces when her older brother plays rough with him.

She is in fourth grade, soft-spoken and slight, with hair pulled into a ponytail. Few of her classmates know she has a mild form of muscular dystrophy called Bethlem myopathy.

She realizes she is not as fast as others her age, said her father, Eric, a landscape contractor. "My legs hurt a little today," Becca told her parents. She was doing laps in gym, then had to stop.

"She's going to need to work on her stretching and her strength as she gets older," her mom said. "She swims now. She's a fish in the water. "

By now, Hawking was mauling a stuffed Curious George, gouging the eyes, removing the stuffing. He trotted the remains around to everyone sitting in the living room, hoping someone, anyone, would join him in a tug-of-war.

Cheri Burns grabbed one of the chimp's ravaged ears and Hawking was in business. "First time I saw him," she said, "I thought 'There's got to be a home for everybody. ' "

Contact Daniel Rubin at 215-854-5917 or drubin@phillynews.com.