Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal
Some have heard that Michelle Bowers was mauled by a bear, others that she was attacked by a parrot.
She said the strangest rumor about why she looks different is that her face was flattened with an iron.
Yet the truth in this case is far stranger and more horrifying than the stories.
At 29 days old, in a playpen 10 feet from her sleeping father, Michelle's face was devoured by her family's pet ferret.
"The ferret completely ate off my nose and it mangled my lips pretty badly and kind of got my finger," Michelle, now 24, said Tuesday.
"It's pretty noticeable but I never really had any problems with it," she said of her scarred appearance. "I've been like this my whole life."
Her shocking story sounds like an urban legend - proven true.
As a child, Michelle's testimony helped outlaw ferrets in California. The investigator in Michelle's case, retired Sheriff's Detective Sue Coffey, spearheaded a law that outlawed ferrets in Carson City homes with children under age 3. It was recently overturned.
By age 8, Michelle had undergone 38 surgeries to repair the damage from the "accident," she said.
The plan was when she reached adulthood and stopped growing, the surgeries would resume. But her parents are still paying off the thousands of dollars from the childhood operations, and further procedures were put on indefinite hold.
"She went through a lot, and I'll tell you she has faced it like a trouper," said grandmother Christine Ostrom. "She's my little love."
The story is a matter of fact for this young woman whose face would give lesser spirits a reason to quit.
Her upper lip is reminiscent of the corrective surgery commonly seen on cleft palates. Her nose is flat with a "funky little bump" in the shape of a triangle, she said.
Corrective surgery caused a deep horizontal scar between her eyebrows and a slight, almost unnoticeable flap of skin on the inside corner of her left eye.
But her sparkling blue eyes are untouched, and her smile comes easily and frequently.
It's beaming wider these days, however.
Two years ago, at the urging of a friend, Michelle flew to Los Angeles to consult with Dr. Gary Motykie of the television show, "Dr. 90210." The show highlights dramatic physical transformations through plastic surgery.
She never heard anything until two months ago, when the show contacted her.
With the new season of the popular E Television program kicking off, producers wanted to take it in a new direction - steering away from the Hollywood beauty storylines to life-altering reconstructive surgery.
They asked Michelle if she wanted to participate. The civil engineering student jumped at the chance.
"I was freaking out," she said.
Michelle said Dr. Motykie will reconstruct her nose, clean up the flap on her eye, repair the damage to her upper lip, and as an added bonus, perform breast augmentation.
"I thought, why not," she said with a laugh.
She can hardly stand the anticipation.
Thursday she and her boyfriend Michael Champagne fly to Los Angeles for the surgery. She should be home by Saturday to begin six weeks of recovery.
"I'm happy for her because she's happy," Champagne said. "I don't think she needs surgery, but it's something she wants."
"You know, some people think surgery will change their life or make their problems go away," he said. "But Michelle will be fine either way."
BRKOUT
To offset the incidental costs Michelle will incur in her six weeks of recovery, donations can be sent to her grandmother at 607 Country Village Drive, Carson City, Nev. 89701