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RALEIGH -- In front of N.C. State's Veterinary Teaching Hospital Wednesday afternoon, a dog named Cassidy was getting some last-minute playtime with his owner Steve Posovsky and his other dog Bella.

Thursday morning, Cassidy would be going in for state-of-the-art surgery to give him a customized prosthetic leg.

“He never leaves my side,” Posovsky said of Cassidy. “Inside the house, on the beach, wherever we go, [he] never leaves my side.”

Posovsky and his wife, Susan, adopted Cassidy even though he had somehow lost part of one of his legs.

“It's wonderful to have him,” Steve said. “I love him. He brings unbelievable joy.”

However, the Posovskys felt Cassidy's missing leg made it difficult for him to keep up with other dogs, like Bella.

“He's like the little engine that could,” Susan said. “The dog is game to do anything, but it does take its toll on his other legs. Walking for any length of time is hard on him.”

That's why they brought Cassidy all the way from their home in New York to N.C. State.

Working with the university’s College of Engineering, veterinarians are trying an experimental procedure. They’re giving Cassidy a prosthetic leg designed specifically for him, which uses new technology to encourage his bone and tissue to grow into an implant that holds the prosthetic leg.

It's only the third operation of its kind in the country, and the first to be performed on a dog.

And this surgery doesn't just help Cassidy. It paves the way for similar surgeries on other animals, and even on humans.

“When you make things more successful for dogs, we make them less scary for people,” Dr. Denis Marcellin-Little, Cassidy’s surgeon, said. “We can say then, 'Hey, look how wonderfully this is accepted by the skin. It’s time to try people.' ”

Marcellin-Little specializes in treating bone deformities in cats and dogs.

“The plan for the future is to be able to do this on a regular basis and be able to receive a CT scan from the hospital about a patient and probably within days turn this around and design the implant, fabricate it, and have it ready for surgery,” said Dr. Ola Harrysson, an associate professor in the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at N.C. State.

“These will be custom-made and not having off-the shelf components," Harrysson said. "It will be specific for one patient.”

Posovsky said he can't wait to see his best friend back up on his feet.

“Just watching him, hopefully watching him walk like a normal dog instead of the way he does now will be ... words just cannot even describe it," Posovsky said. "It will be very, very emotional just to watch him walk down the street like that.”

Cassidy came through the surgery just fine. He should be able to go home in the next couple of days. However, he won't have his new leg just yet.

Doctors want to wait three to four months to give his bones and tissues enough time to grow into and securely attach to the implant, which will hold his prosthetic leg. Cassidy will come back to N.C. State's vet school later this year to get the leg.