The hiker went and got help to rescue Sally, who was emaciated.
A Florida man was hiking near his home in Tampa when he heard the whine of a helpless dog.
This past weekend, Joe Dunn was hiking deep in the Withlacoochee State Forest outside Tampa when he heard a dog howling. When he got closer to the sound, he saw the dog was stuck in a cave.
“It's one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen,” he said in a video posted on social media. "There's a dog stuck down in the cave."
He said that he gave it whatever snacks he had while he tried to figure out how to rescue the pup.
With no rope to climb down and poor cellphone reception, Dunn got creative and angled a tree stump down into the cave hoping the dog could use it to climb out, but when that plan didn't work, he decided to hike 4 miles out of the state forest and get help.
That night, he put out word on social media. The next day, he returned with three fellow good Samaritans.
With rescue gear, they went to the cave and climbed down.
“Mission accomplished, we got the dog out,” he said in another video posted on social media.
The dog had a collar on its neck with tags and a phone number. The dog turned out to be named Sally and had been missing for three weeks.
Sally is now back with her owner, safe and sound.
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