One very lucky dog is recovering at a shelter after a caver group says a weekend trip to a west Virginia cave turned into a rescue mission when they found him 40 to 50 feet underground.
Dave Jackson and Jesse Rochette of the Colorado educational cave simulator company CaveSim went to the Narrows in Giles County to explore the Giant Caverns with a local couple, Jackson said by phone Friday. The first members of the party began to descend into the funnel-shaped cave and encountered something unusual – a dog.
“He said, ‘Whoa! There’s a dog here!'” Rochette said. “And I asked him if he was still alive and he said ‘Yes!'”
A self-described “dog-man,” Rochette repelled down next with a piece of salami.
Skylar Sojka / AP
“He came right over and smoked the salami and he really liked it,” Rochette said. The dog was terrified, so she wrapped him in blankets, foam pads and anything else he could find, including the hood of an old jacket he found in the cave, he said. Next he asked her to drink water by first letting her lick the water from her finger, then lowering her hand until she drank from the bowl.
Video of the dramatic rescue was shared with CBS affiliate WDBJ-TV.
Jackson said she has taken rescue training classes and participated in rescues before, but had never rescued an animal.
“We all brought small rescue equipment,” Jackson said, and they gathered what they had. The cavers improvised a dog harness from tarp and webbing and rigged up a system to transport out the dog strapped to Rochette, he said.
It took three hours to save everything, Rochette said.
“The moment he hit the ground, his tongue came out. You could tell he was out of the situation,” Rochette told WDBJ-TV.
The owner of the property said he did not recognize the dog, so Rochette said he took him to a nearby veterinary hospital and he was later taken to the Giles County Animal Shelter, where he is recovering well and receiving lots of care during his visit. Monday.
While he has never rescued an animal from a cave, Rochette said the other caves he spoke to told him about other rescues. The same cave was on Sunday filled with animal skulls and bones, Rochette said.
“It feels good that the caves don’t get to save each other,” he said.
At first, they were nicknamed “Cave Dogs” but then settled on SPAR-C, an acronym for rescue small parties with a C for dogs, Rochette said.
In a Facebook post on Monday, the shelter called the dog a “living miracle,” saying they didn’t know what to expect when they first heard of his condition.
“Yesterday, we received a call about a dog that fell into a cave in the Narrows,” the shelter said. “Honestly, we don’t know what the next hour or minute will look like.”
But a dog called Sparsy doesn’t have any broken bones. He can’t use his back legs very well without help, but they expect him to be up and moving within a few days with medication, rest and good nutrition.
On Wednesday, the shelter posted an update saying she was up and moving and that her medical expenses had been covered. The shelter is still looking for an owner, but says if he continues to heal quickly, he will be ready for a new home.
The post included a short video of the dog chasing its tail.
“Sparsy up and moving! Look at that tail!” shelter wrote. “He takes his medicine like a champ and eats like there’s no tomorrow.”
