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Two-legged rescue puppy born with no front legs on the move thanks to a 3-D printed wheelchair

By MYRIAH TOWNER (Mail Online)    13:59, November 18, 2015
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Two-legged rescue puppy born with no front legs on the move thanks to a 3-D printed wheelchair
Six-week-old Tumbles is pictured last week getting strapped into his 3-D printed wheelchair for the first time as he tried out the first prototype

A puppy born without his front legs is on the move, thanks to his 3-D printed wheelchair.

Tumbles, a six-week-old Terrier mix, was fitted with the prototype wheelchair last week, which was printed in 14 hours by the Ohio University Innovation Center, according to ABC News.

'He gets around really good. He's now starting to hop. He does that when he gets excited,' said Karen Pilcher, Tumbles' foster mother and the rescue coordinator at Friends of the Shelter Dogs in Athens, Ohio.

Tumbles, who was the runt of three puppies born in October, had trouble nursing and was rescued when he was two weeks old.

The shelter decided to take Tumbles in after deciding that he would not be able to make it through the cold outdoor temperatures or feed properly among the other puppies in the litter, according to 3ders.org.

'He was getting pushed out by the others. We thought he wouldn't make it,' Pilcher said.

Pilcher's husband and a friend of the shelter came up with a design for the wheelchair.

They then reached out to the Ohio University Innovation Center who made the two-wheeled cart come to life with its 3-D printer, which the university got around two years ago.

Tumbles, who will be put up for adoption when he is older, had his first fitting with the prototype last Tuesday.

Crystal Richmond, the volunteer photographer for the shelter, told Daily Mail Online that Tumbles will have a second fitting with an updated version of the prototype, which has been adjusted to be smaller, either today or on Wednesday.

Tumbles, who is described as 'perfectly happy' and 'loves to play' is set to undergo physical therapy to help him get used to his new puppy cart.

'Everyone is real enthusiastic,' Joe Jollick, lab director for the innovation center, told ABC.

'Our main goal [was] to get him off the ground. The second thing is to get him used to it.'

The center has committed to making the pup wheelchairs for the rest of his life, according to ABC. 


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