When Debbie Harry — a chicken, not the Blondie singer — was being bullied by her fellow chickens, she chose to roost alone in her owner’s garage. Unfortunately, it happened to be a very cold winter’s night in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Rachel Diepstra (Debbie’s owner who names all of her chickens after musicians) found the bird near-frozen to the floor. With it unclear whether she would survive, Diepstra was left with nothing to do but wrap “Debbie” in a towel and put her near a warm vent in the hope of saving her.

Luckily, the plucky bird survived the night, but lost both of her feet to frostbite. Diepstra said: “Her feet fell off.” But, she wasn’t going to give up on the chicken, she adds: “She’s my son’s favorite and we thought if we can give her a good quality of life . . . he hated the idea of Debbie not being around.”

Taking to social media to find someone who could help the chicken one way or another, Diepstra found the answer in Andrew Abissi. The husband of one of Diepstra’s high school friends, Abissi is an engineering and robotics teacher at West Michigan Aviation Academy. He decided to use help Debbie out while also using the experience as a learning opportunity for his students about real world applications of 3D modeling, prototyping and 3D printing.

“I proposed the problem to my students and students from other classes – bioengineering and CAD – and asked them to look for as many possible solution as we can to solve it,” Abissi explains.