The wood turtle came to live at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax last September.

Unlike most turtles, Root is missing his right front foot.

“Because one leg is essentially shorter than the other one, we found that he was kind of clunking his shell down,” McKinnon says. “There was some wear on the shell and we didn’t want it to get worse, so he needed something to lift him up.”

The first incarnation used medical adhesive tape and a bandage to attach some wheels, but staff didn’t want to have to stick something to his shell every time he went out for his constitutional. So Biesterfeld came up with the idea of using a removable dog harness along with the Lego platform and wheels.

“Now when I snap his harness on, it’s like when he hears that snap, he’s ready to go,” says Biesterfeld.