A 12-year-old boy built a lego wheelchair for this puppy born without her front legs

Editor's note: This article was originally published on February 7, 2020.

An adorable little doggo who was born without both her front legs found a hero in a 12-year-old Lego aficionado. Gracie was dropped off at a vet office shortly after birth with maggots all over her. Wanting to give the little one a fighting chance, the vet contacted a local rescue called Mostly Mutts Animal Rescue, in Kennesaw, Georgia. The family that runs the shelter fell so in love with Gracie's energy that they adopted her on the spot. With the Turleys, she found her forever home and two fur siblings just as unique as her—a brother who is paralyzed in his hind legs and a three-legged sister.

Being born without her front legs didn't slow Gracie down by the slightest. The spirited canine used her hind legs to hop around the house and out playing with the other dogs. However, her dog mother, Tammy Turley, was concerned about the health issues Gracie's hopping might cause. "She doesn't let it get her down. She doesn't know she's supposed to have 4 legs. She figures it out. I love special needs dogs. That's where my heart is," Turley told 11 Alive.

Speaking to The Dodo about her concerns, Turley said, "I think her nubs get sore. I don't want her to have some kind of lung heart issues later on by bouncing around." However, since Gracie was still a puppy and would grow out of any wheelchair they purchased for her, Turley decided that she wanted something that could be modified according to the puppy's growth. She enlisted the help of Dylan, a 12-year-old volunteer at the shelter, to build a wheelchair out of Legos for Gracie. It took the boy about a week to design the wheelchair for the young pup, complete with a velcro strap to hold her in place.

"The Velcro goes over to help stabilize her. And then she'll start running," Dylan revealed. "The first couple of times, it took her a few minutes to figure it out, but we ended up getting little pieces of hot dog and once she smelled those, she took off," Gracie's proud dog mom gushed. "We have other animals, other dogs, that go out in the yard and stuff and when Gracie goes out and runs, obviously she gets all wet and muddy or whatever. So having her being able to be up and run, she thought it was really cool to be able to kind of run with the other dogs."

Gracie soon outgrew her first Lego wheelchair and Dylan happily designed a bigger one for her which also raised her body up to avoid any damage to her spine from being bent all the time. Finally, when the adorable little dog turned 1 and had reached full growth, Turley bought her a sturdier wheelchair that she could use forever. Amazing Gracie has been through a journey as amazing as her and is still a ball of energy as her mom describes her.