Joe Dunn was hiking through the Withlacoochee State Forest in the central Florida Everglades when he heard the haunting echoing of a dog’s howling.

Dunn, who frequently tromps through the state’s diverse terrain while recording for his nature-focused website Florida Trailblazer, had heard the chilling sound while on his way to check out a nearby cave.

Little did he know that the dog’s howling would lead him directly to the cave he was searching for.

Dunn was exploring the Karst formations that day which, according to Southwest Florida Water Management District, were formed throughout history by waters covering the surface area at that time.

“A ‘Karst’ terrain is a land surface produced by water dissolving the bedrock and is characterized by sinkholes, cavern systems and disappearing streams and springs,” their website reads.

As Dunn approached the cave, the dog’s howling got even louder and more urgent.

As Dunn approached the cave, his fears were realized. A dog had fallen through the brush and gotten itself stuck in the cavern.

“Just came across this cave out here and there’s a dog trapped down in there” Dunn says in his Florida Trailblazer video.

In an interview with The Dodo, Dunn explains how sad it made him to see the dog scared and trapped down there.

“And it was so sad to see the dog had got stuck down in there. He must have fallen in the hole and was down probably 20 feet in the cavern,” he says.

A nature and animal lover to his core, Dunn decided to do everything he could to help the dog out of the cavern. He didn’t have any rope or equipment to pull her out with, so he had to get creative.

Seeing a fallen tree nearby, Dunn pushed the massive log down into the cave hoping she could use it to climb out.

Unfortunately, his efforts didn’t amount to much. The dog was too weak and the slope was too steep for her to climb. Deep in the wilderness, Dunn didn’t have any phone service to reach out for help and had to try and save her on his own.

Dunn was losing daylight and he wasn’t getting anywhere with his rescue attempt.

To make matters worse, a storm was rolling in over the forest and Dunn knew he wouldn’t be able to help the dog at all if something happened to him. So, he gave her every morsel of food he could find in his pack and headed back out to go and find some help.

“I didn’t have any rope with me or a way to get him out, so I gave him all the food in my pack. I could throw it down there, at least, to him” Dunn tells The Dodo.

When Dunn got back into a service area, he immediately reached out for help. He posted about the dog he’d found trapped in the cavern to all his social media sights and was relieved to find that people were more than willing to help.

Early the next morning, Dunn returned with a band of volunteer rescuers trailing in behind him.

The hiker showed them the way to the cave system and was elated to see that the dog had made it through the night. The rescuers had packed plenty of rope and got to work setting up and intricate pulley system to lower one of them down into the cave so they could retrieve the dog.

The group was grateful to learn that the dog had not only survived the 20-foot drop but had done it without sustaining any injuries!

“Hey Buddy!” The rescuer said once he was safely at the bottom.

Once he had a moment to look the dog over, he started shouting up to Dunn the details of what he was seeing.

“He’s very skinny. He’s happy to see me – definitely happy to see me,” he said. When Dunn asked if the dog had any injuries, he said “No, he appears to be in good health. Aside from malnutrition.“

After making sure the dog didn’t have any major injuries to address, the rescuer fashioned her with a make-shift harness and hooked the rope to her.

Then the team of rescuers pulled the dog up from the pit she had fallen into.

As described, she was terribly thin and appeared to have been in there for longer than they thought. When they got her unhooked and settled down, they gave her a can of wet dog food which she lapped up gratefully.

It turned out that the dog they’d been calling a “he” was in fact a “she”, and thankfully, she had a collar.

The plaque on the collar listed her owner’s name and phone number. Of course, they called the dog owners as soon as they were in service and they were overjoyed that they’d found their fur baby.

Her name is Sally.

Sally’s owners told her volunteer rescuers that she had been missing for over 3 weeks. It’s a miracle that she was able to survive down in that cave as long as she had. It’s an even greater miracle, though, that Dunn decided to go exploring that same cavern system when he had.

There is no doubt that Sally had an angel looking out for her.

The rescuers made arrangements to reunite Sally with her humans the very same day they pulled her from the pit, and she couldn’t have been any happier.

To see the full 23-minute video of Dunn discovering and organizing a rescue for Sally, you can watch it on his YouTube channel, Florida Trailblazer. While you’re there, we highly encourage you to check out some of his other eye-catching videos of his hikes through the Florida wilderness. They’re surprisingly educational and entertaining to watch.

To see the shorter version that includes his interview with The Dodo, watch the video below.

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Source: Florida Trailblazer/The Dodo