Lentil the ‘ambassadog’ helps change the way people view cleft palates

Lentil, a young French Bulldog, has more than 97,000 Facebook friends.

The 5-month-old pup has become a celebrity "ambassadog," raising awareness of children with craniofacial abnormalities like cleft palates and cleft lips, because he, too, has a cleft palate and lip.

When he was born, he couldn't eat or drink on his own. Even with constant care — Lentil was fed through a tube — he was in danger of having food and liquid go up his nose and into his lungs.

His sister, Edamame, was born with the same condition. She didn't survive.

Lindsay Condefer, a volunteer with the French Bull Dog Rescue Network of Philadelphia, began an around-the-clock feeding program to ensure the best care for the little dog, and contacted doctors at the University of Pennsylvania's veterinary school about the surgery Lentil would eventually require.

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Condefer started to chronicle Lentil's struggles and triumphs on a blog. Soon after, she created a Facebook page, "My name is Lentil."

"I started the blog first just to sit and write and get all my thoughts out, to like let people know what I was feeling and going through," Condefer told CNN. "And then the blog turned into his Facebook page, and I remember looking at him and thinking ... 'Wait, he has 3,000 people following him? Oh my gosh, he has up to 10,000?' "

Lentil underwent successful surgery in May — to correct his cleft palate, but not his cleft lip.

He can now swallow food and breathe normally and no longer requires to be fed through a tube. Condefer will adopt the pup shortly, the French Bulldog Rescue Network reported.

"The cleft lip itself is more of a cosmetic surgery," Dr. Alexander Reiter of the vet school's Department of Dentistry and Oral Surgery told CNN. "It's not really a necessity for patients that are not fully aware of what they look like."

Dr. John Lewis, Reiter's colleague, said that the vet school decided to make the dog part of a program to help kids with a similar condition.

"We started to talk about how it may be beneficial to be able to allow some of our veterinary patients who were having some pretty complex craniofacial surgeries and some changes in appearance to be able to meet some children and even adults who are going through some pretty similar procedures and having to deal with some similar problems," Lewis said.

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"It's sort of a pet therapy where people can relate a little bit more with those pets that have gone through things that they've gone through as well."

"The ironic thing with Lentil is that everyone loves him for his look, and that look is the same look that people are growing up [with] and being ridiculed about," Condefer told CBS Philadelphia. "So it’s a good way to raise awareness … there’s no reason to shun someone."

Condefer told ABC News that Lentil's medical bills were paid for through donations. All additional funds went to animal shelters and the Children's Craniofacial Association (CCA).

Lentil recently returned from a CCAKids retreat where he encouraged kids with craniofacial deformities like his.