I've always dreamed of being someone who posts kittens, but the trend passed a while ago and I had already resigned myself when Dymka gave me a dream.
With the help of a local university, the Russian vet Porter Gorshkov it 3D printed four titanium legs to allow a 4-year-old cat, a female specimen called Dymka, to walk again. Yes, sir, the bionic cat.
The poor feline had suffered amputation due to frostbite of all four paws (and part of the tail, which however has not yet been restored. Paradoxically, the 3D printed tails they seem more the preserve of humanslately).
The first bionic cat?
On closer inspection Dymka is not the first cat to receive bionic legs. Another cat, a male specimen called Ryzhik, who was also amputated because of the cold, received the same treatment from the same clinic.
“Dymka is now the second bionic cat in the world with all four prosthetic limbs“, reads a statement released to the New York Post from the Tomsk Polytechnic, involved in the project.
“The cat's new front and back paws are an individual model that is printed in titanium with a 3D printer.”
Out in the cold
Previously, researchers used scans of Dymka's legs to model a project that respected the proportions of the feline.
Subsequently, the titanium paws were 3D printed and surgically connected to the stumps, completing the aesthetics of the cyborg cat (let's specify: the kitten) with "black feet".
Of course, while waiting for new advances, Dymka still can't run and his balance is a bit precarious (also due to his tail), but he has regained autonomy in his movements. Who knows in the future.
Meanwhile, he lives happily the second of his nine lives.
