One of the things I love about this show is how they handle Della being an amputee.

The writers don’t make a huge deal about it in that they don’t have Della wallowing in self-pity over it, or complaining in every episode about phantom sensations or her prosthesis being uncomfortable, even though those are probably things she realistically deals with from time to time.

The writers also don’t have her family making a huge fuss, treating her like she’s disabled and incapable. They don’t constantly ask her if she’s okay or if she needs to sit this adventure out or any of that. It seems they live by the unspoken rule Don’t make a fuss unless Della does, and since she doesn’t, they don’t.

At the same time, the writers also don’t ignore it entirely. Frank talked about how they have moments when Della uses her prosthesis to her advantage, or times when she cleans or adjusts it.

But then there are also little moments like the above gifs.

In “Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks!” Della spent the whole episode walking, running, and jumping, seemingly with no problem, just like many real amputees can. But she landed on her prosthesis jumping out of the log, and seemed to land on both feet jumping from a ledge. Then she ran some more. Maybe by the end of the episode her residual limb was starting to bother her, but she didn’t complain. She just borrowed Louie’s head and Scrooge’s face to lessen the impact on her residual limb as she stepped down prosthesis-first.

And then in “Quack Pack!” we see Louie and Scrooge giving her a hand after they all fell through the ceiling together. They don’t make a huge deal out of it like, “Oh no! Are you okay? Are you hurt? You poor, already-disabled thing!” They just noticed she wasn’t getting up right away and lent her a hand without saying a word.

Sometimes I pay attention to how she moves, since Frank said they worked closely with the Amputee Coalition on how she’d move, and I’ve noticed after a whole lot of physical activity, she’ll tend to put the majority of her weight on her right leg.

Just like many amputees in real life, there are times she moves around like she would if she still had both of her natural legs, and if she wore long pants you couldn’t tell the difference. But there are also times she needs a little bit of support… and still other times when her prosthetic limb is an asset rather than a hindrance. How she’s doing in one scene might not be how she’s doing in the next, because that’s how it is for an amputee sometimes. How a residual limb feels can change in a moment.

It’s these little moments when you can see the care the writers have taken with Della.