10/24/2025
Piper was born without her front leg to a wonderful breeder, Breanna Wickham in Easley, South Carolina. Wanting to make sure Piper found the perfect home, Breanna listed her as a donation on an amputee group site. Thanks to our dear friend Crystal, we learned about Piper and applied — and were chosen!
We were thrilled, not only because we could give Piper a loving home, but because we could share her with our amputee community through The Amputee Center and Miller Prosthetics & Orthotics. We also had the unique ability to make her a prosthetic leg.
Because her residual limb is so high, we weren’t sure if a prosthesis would help or hinder her. But with Halloween approaching — and Piper’s pirate costume ready to go — she definitely needed a pirate leg!
So, our team got to work. My son, Alex Miller, CPO, scanned Piper’s chest with a 3D scanner and collaborated with Leo and the team at to design a chest harness. The first version was 3D printed at our Belpre, Ohio, office, but the material wasn’t quite right. While waiting for the reprint, Brad Moore, our talented technician and soon-to-be Pedorthist, filled the first print with plaster, built a soft-lined harness, and crafted a lightweight wooden peg leg — just in time for The Pirates of The Amputee Center Party!
But the project didn’t stop there. Our friend and master woodworker Frank Byers in Cincinnati searched far and wide for willow wood to turn a handcrafted leg for Piper — the same type of wood he used years ago for Keating’s first peg leg. Frank found the willow wood through his friend Jim Heart from Good Wood, Etc. Frank not only created a beautiful willow leg, but also made a second leg from cedar!
Today, the hand-turned willow and cedar peg legs arrived in the mail, along with our new TPU-printed harness from our Belpre office. Alex fitted the new harness and leg, and now Piper can proudly wears her elegant willow wood peg leg — just in time for Halloween 2025. 🎃🐾
Huge thanks to everyone who helped bring Piper’s “first pirate leg” to life — Alex, Brad, Leo and the Protosthetics team, and Frank Byers. You’ve made this little three-legged therapy dog even more inspiring for our amputee family. ❤️