Julie Ball

jball@citizen-times.com

ASHEVILLE - Cane Creek Middle School teacher Christopher Todd noticed the little cat hooked up to a tiny cart during a visit to an Arden pet supply store.

The contraption allowed Clark the kitty to move around even though he’s paralyzed and can’t use his back legs.

With his engineering background, Todd wanted to know how the conveyance worked. He also wondered whether it could be improved.

When Todd told his wife, she told him he needed to get his students at Cane Creek involved. It’s just the kind of real world problem engineers should be working on, she told him.

“What I’m trying to illustrate is engineering, science, technology, math, all of it, they solve problems for people, animals and the world,” Todd said. “This is what engineering is. It’s not just a bunch of hard numbers.”

Todd’s students are now working to design a new, better cart for Clark, aka Clark the Super Kitty. They’re trying to figure out the best materials and work on a way to keep Clark’s tail from getting stuck in the wheels.

“It’s incredibly cool,” said Christy Lennox with the Transylvania Animal Alliance Group. “We can’t wait to see what they come up with.”

Check out a video of the cat here, courtesy of Buncombe County Schools.

Clark has been in the care of foster mom Terry Grossmann, who is also the president of TAAG.

Grossman was picking up another cat from Henderson County Animal Services last summer when she “went to go see who was crying,” Lennox said.

“(The shelter) had just gotten him. They didn’t quite know what to do with him, so we took him and said, 'We’ll see,'” Lennox said.

Clark was only a few weeks old. He came to the shelter with his injury. Officials aren’t sure how it happened. They think maybe a dog tried to pick him up when he was little, damaging his spine.

But they say it hasn’t slowed him down.

“There’s a lot of personality in that tiny kitty body. He just, from day one, has been just a special little guy,” Lennox said. “Terry kind of named him Clark after Clark Kent, and it just kind of took off.”

Grossmann created Clark’s first cart. There have been several other versions based on trial and error.

“We knew from day one that he was going to have to get up on his feet. He was dragging himself around and that can come with complications,” Lennox said.

The sixth-graders in Todd’s class hope to design a new cart for Clark that can accommodate him as he grows.

Todd’s students are in a Project Lead the Way class that incorporates all the STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and math.

The students are using all those things as they design the cart.

“What we’re going to be doing is we collect data. We look at the science of what’s wrong with the cat and what happened,” Todd said.

They have also looked at problems with the existing cart. And the students are figuring out what kind of materials and tools they will need. Everything has to be done within a budget.

“I think everyone has gotten into it. Everyone has been providing ideas,” said 11-year-old Finn Shea, one of the students working on the project.

“Some people are working on the body. Some people are working on the wheels. Some people are working on whether or not we could 3D print it,” Shea said.

Shea’s been focused on finding a durable, washable fabric for a “tail pouch” that will keep Clark’s tail from getting under the wheels.

“There are a lot of problems to solve, and we have to worry about the price, too,” Shea said.

Students got to meet their client and find out more about his special needs.

“He was playing around with cat toys like a normal cat,” Shea said. “I thought it was pretty fun. You realize that this cat doesn’t notice he’s disabled.”

Clark has been a kind of ambassador for special needs pets, according to Lennox. She said TAAG eventually hopes to place Clark with a permanent home.

Find out more



See Clark the Super Kitty and the Cane Creek students in this video from Buncombe County Schools: https://vimeo.com/150823656

Transylvania Animal Alliance Group set up an online fundraising campaign to try to raise money for Clark’s medical bills. For more, visit https://www.gofundme.com/ng46eju8