West Orange Teens Are Designing Prosthetic Leg For Rescue Dog

WEST ORANGE, NJ — High school students in West Orange are taking on a unique assignment with a powerful real-world impact: designing a prosthetic leg for an in-need rescue dog.

“Cody the Tripod Dog” will soon be getting a new leg thanks to a partnership between Boonton-based tech studio DiveDesign, Madison-based nonprofit Creature Comfort Pet Therapy and the technology and engineering department at West Orange High School.

Cody is a street rescue who was found abandoned in Puerto Rico. When he arrived in rescuers’ arms, his front leg was so badly mangled that it had to be amputated. But after finding a new home with Karen Clark of Creature Comfort Pet Therapy in December 2021, Cody has been an “amazing ambassador and source of inspiration to all of the people he meets in his pet therapy career.”

That includes students at West Orange High School, who will be designing a prosthetic for the endearing pooch.

According to district administrators, students at the high school begin laying the groundwork for their tech educations in their first year, when they are tasked with creating a prosthetic for a stuffed animal. As they progress through the curriculum, the difficulty level is bumped up, and students are challenged with making a design for a live animal.

And that’s where Cody comes in.

The students will be working with DiveDesign, which specializes in creating hardware solutions through cutting-edge manufacturing technologies. The company will be guiding the teens through the creative process, offering feedback and potentially crafting a new leg for Cody, according to Ryan DelGuercio, the supervisor of technology and engineering at West Orange High School.

“This hands-on experience provides our students with real-world learning opportunities while making a meaningful impact by aiding an animal in distress,” DelGuercio said.

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