'I Feared My Dog Was Lost Forever—After 2 Months I Made a Shocking Discovery'

When my daughter, Rachel, was younger, she spent years asking for a puppy. Eventually, my wife and I gave in, and in November 2008, we bought her a poodle-hound mix who we named Abby. For most of her life, she's just been a normal, happy little dog.

We live out in the country, in Southeast Missouri, so there's farm fields all around us. We have another dog, named Summer, who would often take off with Abby to go on little country runs. It didn't happen all the time, but they did disappear every once in a while.

Normally, if Abby and Summer weren't back within an hour, I would flag it to our neighbors or put a message out on Facebook saying to look out for them—but usually they'd turn up after a little while.

On June 9, in the late afternoon, they ran off like they normally would. It was frustrating, but I thought: "They're dogs, that's what they do." It wasn't totally unusual for them to be gone for the whole day and I figured they would be back when they were hungry, so I wasn't upset or worried.

But when Summer came back the next morning alone, I was a little concerned. The two dogs never separated very easily, so I started to suspect something may have happened to Abby. Then whenfeeding time came around in the evening and she still hadn't turned up, I knew then something was wrong.

I contacted the local police department and our neighbors to let them know Abby was missing. I was a little worried by this point; she's an older dog, so I knew it was possible she wouldn't be coming back. The weather had been hot and I thought maybe she had got heat stroke and died out there.

After a couple of days we still hadn't heard anything, so I was pretty convinced she was gone. It was upsetting, but Abby was almost 14-years-old.

Two months passed and there was no sign of her, so we assumed she wasn't coming home.

Then, in early August, when we got a text from our neighbors saying a group of cavers had found a dog inside a local cave called Berome Moore Cave.

They told us the dog had the same shock collar as Abby on, which we thought was unusual. Eventually I decided to go and see what they found, more than anything just to prove it wasn't our pet.

The cave is around a quarter of a mile from our home, we can actually see it from across our field, and our neighbors were convinced it could be Abby. After so many months missing we did not believe it could actually be her.

I drove down and met a caver called Gerry Keene, who was part of a group who discovered the animal. He showed me a picture of the dog, which he had taken inside the cave. I couldn't believe it. It was Abby. I just said: "Wow, that's my dog."

It was pretty crazy. I had assumed she was long gone already, so I was in awe that she was still alive. After two months down a cave with nothing to eat, it seemed impossible.

Gerry hadn't managed to get Abby out, but luckily he was able to enlist the help of Rick Haley, a trained cave rescuer who happened to be in the area. They were still waiting on some other people to help them with the rescue, so told me to go home and wait.

The cave is one of the longest in Missouri at around 20 miles long, and Abby was trapped around 500 feet inside. The rescuers had to transport her through some very steep passages and small areas. She was able to walk a little but she would have to be carried through the most difficult sections.

They placed a blanket in a duffle bag and dropped it down to the ground where Abby was stuck. They told me she was very cooperative and just walked right over and laid in the bag. Abby was packaged up and carried through the vertical passages, passed between the rescuers, over their heads, as they walked one-by-one through the cave.

I have no idea how she survived down there for so long. There was water in the cave, but there's nothing she could have eaten down as far as I know. She must have survived off her body fat. When we found her she was very skinny; skin and bones really.

A few hours later the rescuers called me and said I could come and get Abby. I drove over and there she was, standing there. She was pretty weak, but she was able to stand up and walk around. She was so light, when I picked her up to put her in the truck it was like picking up a feather.

The first thing I did after getting her back was video call my daughter, Rachel, I said: "I have a surprise for you." I turned the camera to Abby and she was so shocked. She asked: "How is she alive!" My daughter lives in Texas for school, so can't wait to see Abby again at Christmas time.

Abby was super happy to be out of the cave. She was fairly weak and had been in total darkness for so long that it took her a little while for her eyes to adjust. When I got her home she was stumbling a bit and would walk into things every now and again. But it didn't take her long to recover.

Now, she's doing remarkably well. She still needs to gain weight back, but she's getting stronger. Abby is very happy; she's barking and wagging her tail and running around.

I think it's a pretty amazing story, the fact she was able to survive for that long considering her age and how long she was down there. It's incredible.

Jeff Bohnert, 55, lives in Perryville, eastern Missouri with his wife. He retired last autumn.

All views expressed in this article are the author's own.

As told to Monica Greep.