Missouri Cave Explorers Rescue Dog Missing For Months

A group of cave explorers in Missouri accidentally found an elderly dog that had been missing for months. Rick Haley said he found the dog along with fellow cave explorer Gerry Keene while exploring a cave system in Perry County, Missouri. The group of spelunkers were taking part in a research project for the Cave Research Foundation. They were remapping a cave just north of Perryville, Missouri.

While they were working, Haley said another spelunker came up to him saying they had to do a dog rescue after a group of parents and children discovered the dog. Haley, 66, said the other explorers left the cave and knocked on the doors in the nearby neighborhood and actually found the owner of the lost dog. They then went back to the cave and navigated through twists and turns to reach the dog, who was about 500 feet deep into the cave.

Haley said the dog was in bad shape,having been there a long time, she was very near death, suffering from starvation and had no energy to even walk toward him and the other rescuers. They put the dog in a duffel bag with her head sticking out. This was to protect her and the rescuers as she would likely struggle. They moved her 500 feet to a very tight, awkward, vertical climb, handing her hand to hand upward to the surface. The pictures kinda tell the story.

She was happy to be out and reunited with her owner who said she had been missing since June 9th. Abby the dog was found between Brewer and Perryville in the Moore Cave system — the second longest cave system in the state at more than 22 miles long. While no one knows how the dog ended up in the cave, Haley said had it not been for the research project, the dog would have remained in the cave.

“I’m just happy to be able to get her out of the cave because when we got her out of the cave…her spirits lifted a little,” Haley said. “And I can actually say my day was very positive. When I put my head down on the pillow that night, I had a smile on my face.”