Turtle with "Prosthetic" front legs

[Erik]

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?
It's not every day you see a turtle walking around with furniture coasters attached to his undershell.

But after Lucky the box turtle was attacked by a racoon, owner Sally Pyne, 60 had to come up with a shatterproof solution.
Sally said: "He was in so much pain, I was ready to let little Lucky go, but Lucky, wasn't ready to give up. He was shoving himself around on his two back legs. He was not going to quit."

So Sally took the plucky turtle who she's owned for four years to her local vet who stitched and bandaged him up. But Sally, an elderly carer, knew if Lucky was to survive, he'd need more than a few stitches to help him on his way.

She sought the help of vet and reptile expert Robert Jereb and together they came up with the idea of attaching four furniture coasters with double-sided sticky tape to Lucky's underbelly to raise his front to the right height.

"I came up with the idea of cutting a ping pong ball in half to raise his front up to the right level, but Robert said that wouldn't be strong enough," Sally explained.

"He'd just spent the morning in the hardware shop, where he came up with the idea of the furniture coasters."

Now Lucky's back at his Petaluma, California home that he shares with Sally and his box turtle girlfriend, Lovey.

Sally said: "Lucky's adapted very quickly, and is walking just like he did before.

"As for Lovey, she doesn't seem to have noticed a difference in her playmate, she's still resisting his amorous advances!"

Only one question remains - why did Lovey survive the attack and not Lucky? Sally said: "I think Lucky was chubbier than Lovey, and because he was a bit overweight couldn't pull his front legs in quick enough."
Here's hoping Lucky's fancy footwork will see him coasting along for another good few years.

[Vinny]

Sweet article Erik thanks for posting it. It's amazing what you can do if you put the time and effort into it...