The news these days is often depressing at worst and frustrating at best. It’s easy to let it get us down. Never fear… The News Blender has you covered. Once a week we feature Something Good and, in return, all you have to do is tell us something good that has happened to you this week, something you are thankful for, a joke, a cute animal story, an inspiring tale of heroics, a Random Act of Kindness… SOMETHING good.
This week’s something good is being in the right place at the right time.
In Perry County, Missouri, an amazing rescue occurred last week in part of the Barome Moore cave system, according to CNN. A group of 30 spelunkers, including 66-year-old Rick Haley, were working on mapping the 22-mile system with the Cave Research Foundation on August 6. Haley, who was in charge of logistics for the project, happened to exit the cave and found the assistant fire chief of the Perrysville Fire Department in need of the kind of specific assistance Haley could provide.
The assistant fire chief told Haley that a group of families had been exploring one of the caves earlier and found a dog, lethargic and malnourished, trapped deep in the cave and unable to extricate herself. The mapping project turned into a rescue mission.
Rick and fellow spelunker Gerry Keene had both been trained in cave rescue and they headed into the cave to bring the dog out. While their training did not cover dog rescue, their human-based training was enough to safely bring her out. They had to shimmy and crawl through tight spaces before they found the dog, who was in bad shape.
“She didn’t seem to have any injuries. But boy, she was really malnourished. She was skin and bones,” Rick said. “She had mud on her.”
While it is unclear how the dog ended up so far into the cave, Rick speculates that she may have chased an animal in, then perhaps flooding forced her deeper into the cave and led to her being trapped.
Rick and Gerry had a duffle bag with a blanket in it and the dog, who was unable to really walk, stepped into it. They zipped her in, with her head sticking out, so she wouldn’t struggle and hurt herself or the cavers and carried her out. At one point, that involved a ” very tight, awkward vertical climb” and the pup being handed hand to hand up to the surface.
The members of the group walked the nearby neighborhood and found the dog’s owner who was “astonished” to have their 13-year-old dog Abby reappear after nearly 2 months.
Rick said Abby was lethargic but cooperative on the way out of the cave and her spirits started “perking up”.
Being in the right place at the right time with the right skills to facilitate a rescue is definitely a good thing. Now it’s your turn… Tell me something good!
