QED.
“No pic of the dog = no buy of the story.”
Actually the story is quite believable, I’ve seen similar things myself, including another real story that at some point was in the news, where someone was panhandling with a cute dog, then at the end of the day he went around the corner, got into his nice car and drove home to his nice house, which he owned free and clear.
I wish I had bookmarked the article...