What could have very easily been a tragic story turned out to be a “feel good story of survival.”
Rick Haley was recently at a caving project inside the Tom Moore Cave system in Perry County, Missouri when a group exploring the caves discovered a dog!
When Rick Haley heard about the dog he and his friend Gerry Keene helped facilitate a rescue effort on August 6th. “The dog was not in good shape,” Haley wrote on Facebook of his first impression of the dog.
“We package the dog in a duffel bag with her head sticking out,” Hayley described. “This was to protect her and the rescuers as she would likely struggle.”
The next step was to lift the dog out of the cave. The dark, muddy surroundings made getting out slippery, slow work. The dog was reportedly found inside part of the Berome Moore Cave, which is over 21 miles long.
Thankfully, the rescuers didn’t have to venture that far. “We moved her 500 feet to a very tight, awkward, vertical climb, handing her hand to hand upward to the surface,” Haley wrote.
The elderly dog was “totally cooperative” as they pulled her up through the dark claustrophobic cave.
Finally, they got her out. Haley revealed, “She was happy to be out!”
Haley shared video of the dog once they successfully got her to the surface.
The rescuers had more reason to marvel at how the dog survived when they learned she had been missing for 2 months! The dog had been found in an area of the caves that was pitch black which would have made it hard for her to locate the running water that is in the cave system, Fox 2 reported.
The caves also have crustaceans, but again it was a mystery how the dog survived for so long.
As soon as the spelunkers brought her out the search began to help her find her family. Rescuers contacted Biehle Assistant Fire Chief Robert Cahoon who helped them go door-knocking in the area to see if they could find the dog’s owner, Fox 2 reported. And they did! The dog’s name is Abby and she had been missing since June 9.
What an amazing survival story!
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