Before Keene went back into the cave with Haley, he showed the photo of the dog to residents who lived near the cave. One of them recognized her as Abby, a neighbor’s mixed-breed poodle who had gone missing June 9. Haley and Keene speculated she might have chased an animal into the cave or was perhaps swept inside during a flash flood.
Knowing that someone was looking for her gave them even more motivation to go back in and get her.
They walked and crawled for about 15 minutes until they reached Abby, but it took them more than an hour to carefully haul her through low and narrow tunnels to the surface in a padded duffel bag, Haley said. The exhausted pooch’s head poked out of the top.
The cave tunnel system is about 22 miles, one of the longest in Missouri, which is known as the Cave State with more than 7,300 recorded caves. Abby was quiet and relaxed as they moved her through the tight spaces, perhaps because she knew she was being rescued, Haley said. “She was also extremely weak and emaciated from lack of food,” he said. “She did have water in the cave. If not for that, she wouldn’t be here.”
When the pair surfaced with Abby, her grateful owner, Jeff Bohnert, 55, rushed over to get her and gingerly bring her home. He said a neighbor had alerted him about the photo taken by Keene. He was flabbergasted to learn that his adventurous dog had been found 500 feet underground, two months after she went missing.
He and his wife, Kathy Bohnert, gently gave Abby a bath, and they made a large batch of chicken broth to feed to her in small amounts. “It had been a long time since she’d had food, so we gave the broth to her in tiny increments to get her stomach moving again,” Bohnert said. “She’s still pretty weak, but she’s responding to the nutrients.”
Abby is now able to take short walks on a leash, and she seems happy to be reunited with her pal Summer and the family cat, Fuzzy, he said.
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Abby is recovering from her ordeal nicely and has become more steady on her feet, said her owner, Jeff Bohnert, shown here with her four days after the rescue. (Kathy Bohnert)
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Abby, center, enjoys a short walk with Summer and the family cat, Fuzzy, on Aug. 9 in Perryville. (Rachel Bohnert)
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