Handicapped kitten walks again after students create 3D printed wheelchair

Two teens are giving a tiny disabled kitten a second chance at a better life.

Cassidy the kitten was found nearly starved in the woods in Langley, B.C., with both of his back legs lost. He was rescued by Shelly Roche from Tiny Kitten Rescue, a volunteer-based organization working to rescue stray, feral and abused cats, Global News reports.

“He managed to survive somehow for nine weeks, until we found him,” Roche told Global News. “He actually had learned how to lift his little bum off the ground and walk like a reverse velociraptor.”

Cassidy was born with all four legs but Roche told the Huffington Post that she suspects the kitten’s back legs were “accidentally chewed off by his mother” instead of the umbilical cord during his birth. He then suffered from E.Coli infection in his back legs and it took “lots of food and antibiotics” to save him.

After getting healthy, the 12-week-old kitten was stuck with a body that just couldn’t keep up with him.

So Roche turned to Facebook for help.

That’s when two grade 12 students from Walnut Grove Secondary School, Josh Messmer and Isaiah Walker, answered the call after a secretary at their school found the Facebook page.

The students set to work using their school’s 3D printer to create a few wheelchair models for the kitten, Global News reports. Walker told the news outlet that it took a few modifications and designs to get it just right.

“He’s so much happier,” Roche told Global News. “Having the freedom to be able to move is something he’s never had before. It’s really made a difference for him.”