Post by charmingnancy on Feb 10, 2009 22:28:48 GMT -5
Source: The Greeneville Sun, Tennessee
BY BILL JONES
STAFF WRITER
Thanks, in large part, to a pair of young cave explorers from Greene County, a dog that had been trapped in a Jearoldstown community cave for a week was rescue alive on Saturday.
Sailor, a 9-year-old English Blue Tick coon hound, was pulled from a cave off Pitt Loop in northeastern Greene County about 2:15 p.m. Saturday, according to Travis Sturm, the dog’s owner.
During a post-rescue interview, Sturm said nearly a 100 volunteers had worked nearly around the clock since Wednesday trying to find a way to reach Sailor who had apparently chased a raccoon into a narrow cave about 11 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21.
He had known that Sailor was trapped in the cave because he and friends had followed a signal from the dog’s electronic tracking collar to the cave’s tiny entrance.
Once there, he said, he had heard Sailor barking from deep inside the cave.
“A lot of the people who came to help were people we didn’t know,” Sturm said late Saturday afternoon as he sat with Sailor in the living room of his family’s Pitt Loop home in northeastern Greene County.
The volunteers, he noted, had used hand tools, jackhammers and a backhoe to try enlarge the tiny opening of the cave where Sailor was trapped.
Rescue Recalled
But it wasn’t until volunteer cavers Josh Dunn, 29, of Old Baileyton Road, Afton, and Mark Patrick, 13, of Greeneville, wriggled into the narrow cave opening on Saturday afternoon that Sailor, who had fallen into a 25-foot-deep pit in the cave, was rescued.
Mike Patrick, Mark Patrick’s father, said during a Sunday interview that he, his son and their friend Josh Dunn heard about the rescue attempt and decided late Friday to offer their caving expertise.
It turned out to be a fateful decision for Sailor and the three experienced cave explorers, Mike Patrick said.
During a separate Sunday interview, Josh Dunn said he and Mark Patrick didn’t want to take credit for the rescue.
He said he felt the dozens of other volunteers who had worked for days to enlarge the cave opening deserved the credit.
“We were the only two people who were there who were small enough to fit through the opening and who knew what to do once we got inside the cave,” Dunn said.
Mark Patrick said it was “a little claustrophobic” inside the cave, but maintained that he wasn’t scared by the experience.
When they reached the scene in a remote area off Pitt Loop about 11 a.m. Saturday, Mike Patrick said, they found volunteers, including Tri-Cities cavers Bill James and Don Feathers, hard at work trying to enlarge the tiny opening to the cave.
“We were surprised to see people we knew there,” Mike Patrick said.
Caver Bill James, who is treasurer of the Mountain Empire Grotto of the National Speleological Society (NSS), said he and fellow caver Feathers had come to the scene on Friday night and had helped guide volunteers in enlarging the cave opening.
James said he and Feathers were able to show volunteers how to “follow the grain of the rock” with hand tools and drills. That, he said, made enlarging the tiny cave opening easier and faster than would have otherwise been the case.
James noted that on Friday night, he and Feathers also entered an opening to another nearby Cave in the hope that it might be connected to the cave in which Sailor was trapped.
But no connection between the two caves could be found and work on enlarging the opening to the cave in which Sailor was trapped resumed.
By Saturday afternoon, the opening had been enlarged somewhat, but was still too small for anyone at the scene to attempt to enter — except Josh Dunn, who is small of stature, and Mark Patrick who is only 13 years old.
Mike Patrick, Mark’s father, said his son and Josh Dunn volunteered to try to enter the cave opening, which measured no more than 10 inches high and no more than 18 inches wide.
During a Sunday interview, Mike Patrick admitted to being concerned about seeing his 13-year-old son enter the narrow cave opening.
He noted that he attached a rope to his son as a safety precaution before he entered the cave.
“It’s rough seeing your son in a place you can’t get to,” Mike Patrick said.
He noted that Josh Dunn entered the tiny opening first.
“He had to go in feet-first,” Mike Patrick said, noting that Dunn had to struggle to get his hips through a narrow point inside the cave and then had to remove his safety helmet in order to get his head through the opening.
He put the helmet back on once inside the cave, Patrick said of Dunn.
After passing through the narrow opening, Mike Patrick said, Dunn had to pivot about 90 degrees and bring his knees up to his chin in order to make it deeper into the cave.
After a second 90-degree turn, Mike Patrick said, Dunn reached a point overlooking a 20-to-25-foot-deep pit in which the dog was trapped.
After Dunn successfully entered the cave, young Mark Patrick followed, his father said.
Mark Patrick said he remained on a ledge overlooking the pit in which the dog was trapped while Dunn rappelled down into it using a rope.
Dog Found Asleep
Dunn said he found the dog asleep and, after awakening him, called for some dog food to be sent into the cave.
After allowing the dog to eat, Dunn said, he placed Sailor in a duffel bag and attached him to his harness before using his rope and climbing equipment to make his way out of the pit.
Once out of the pit, Dunn said, he passed the dog along to Mark Patrick who, in turn, guided the dog back out to a point in the cave where Mike Patrick was waiting.
Dunn said he pushed the dog in front of him while Mark Patrick pulled.
“When the dog saw me, he tried to turn around and go back,” Mike Patrick said. “I didn’t think we were going to be able to get him out at first.”
He noted that his son had to stretch Sailor’s back legs out behind him in order for him to fit through the narrowest point in the cave entrance.
When he passed the dog out of the cave to its waiting owner, Mike Patrick said, a celebration erupted among volunteers.
Unfortunately, he said, Dunn and his son were still inside the cave and facing the daunting task of getting back out of it.
After his son successfully negotiated the tricky passage, Mike Patrick said, Dunn began making his way out.
At one point, Mike Patrick said, Dunn had to struggle and contort his body to get through a narrow point but finally managed to make his way out of the cave.
Dog Back Home
When brought home on Saturday afternoon, Donna Sturm said, Sailor drank water, ate a small amount of dog food and curled up in the sun near the living room window in the Sturm home.
Travis Sturm said Sailor, who had weighed about 50 pounds before being trapped, had lost so much weight during his ordeal that he had to tighten the dog’s collar three notches to make it fit.
Amanda Jobe, a veterinary technician from Fall Branch who helped recruit and organize the rescue effort, said that Sailor had lost an estimated 10 pounds.
Jobe said the dog had some abrasions that needed attention and appeared to have been about the go into shock when he was rescued.
She noted that she planned to administer fluid intravenously to the dog on Saturday evening to stabilize Sailor’s condition.
As a Greeneville Sun reporter spoke with the Sturms and Jobe, Sailor wandered around the house apparently in search of food — something he hadn’t seen for a week.
Travis Sturm said he had owned Sailor for four years and hunted with the dog regularly. He credited the dog’s good physical condition with helping him survive the ordeal.
Strurm thanked everyone who had taken part in the rescue effort, but didn’t want to name names for fear of leaving someone out.
However, he did say he wished to personally thank neighbor Cletus Tullock for bringing his backhoe to the scene and using it for two days to help enlarge the cave opening.
Volunteers sealed the entrance to the cave when the ordeal was over.
BY BILL JONES
STAFF WRITER
Thanks, in large part, to a pair of young cave explorers from Greene County, a dog that had been trapped in a Jearoldstown community cave for a week was rescue alive on Saturday.
Sailor, a 9-year-old English Blue Tick coon hound, was pulled from a cave off Pitt Loop in northeastern Greene County about 2:15 p.m. Saturday, according to Travis Sturm, the dog’s owner.
During a post-rescue interview, Sturm said nearly a 100 volunteers had worked nearly around the clock since Wednesday trying to find a way to reach Sailor who had apparently chased a raccoon into a narrow cave about 11 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21.
He had known that Sailor was trapped in the cave because he and friends had followed a signal from the dog’s electronic tracking collar to the cave’s tiny entrance.
Once there, he said, he had heard Sailor barking from deep inside the cave.
“A lot of the people who came to help were people we didn’t know,” Sturm said late Saturday afternoon as he sat with Sailor in the living room of his family’s Pitt Loop home in northeastern Greene County.
The volunteers, he noted, had used hand tools, jackhammers and a backhoe to try enlarge the tiny opening of the cave where Sailor was trapped.
Rescue Recalled
But it wasn’t until volunteer cavers Josh Dunn, 29, of Old Baileyton Road, Afton, and Mark Patrick, 13, of Greeneville, wriggled into the narrow cave opening on Saturday afternoon that Sailor, who had fallen into a 25-foot-deep pit in the cave, was rescued.
Mike Patrick, Mark Patrick’s father, said during a Sunday interview that he, his son and their friend Josh Dunn heard about the rescue attempt and decided late Friday to offer their caving expertise.
It turned out to be a fateful decision for Sailor and the three experienced cave explorers, Mike Patrick said.
During a separate Sunday interview, Josh Dunn said he and Mark Patrick didn’t want to take credit for the rescue.
He said he felt the dozens of other volunteers who had worked for days to enlarge the cave opening deserved the credit.
“We were the only two people who were there who were small enough to fit through the opening and who knew what to do once we got inside the cave,” Dunn said.
Mark Patrick said it was “a little claustrophobic” inside the cave, but maintained that he wasn’t scared by the experience.
When they reached the scene in a remote area off Pitt Loop about 11 a.m. Saturday, Mike Patrick said, they found volunteers, including Tri-Cities cavers Bill James and Don Feathers, hard at work trying to enlarge the tiny opening to the cave.
“We were surprised to see people we knew there,” Mike Patrick said.
Caver Bill James, who is treasurer of the Mountain Empire Grotto of the National Speleological Society (NSS), said he and fellow caver Feathers had come to the scene on Friday night and had helped guide volunteers in enlarging the cave opening.
James said he and Feathers were able to show volunteers how to “follow the grain of the rock” with hand tools and drills. That, he said, made enlarging the tiny cave opening easier and faster than would have otherwise been the case.
James noted that on Friday night, he and Feathers also entered an opening to another nearby Cave in the hope that it might be connected to the cave in which Sailor was trapped.
But no connection between the two caves could be found and work on enlarging the opening to the cave in which Sailor was trapped resumed.
By Saturday afternoon, the opening had been enlarged somewhat, but was still too small for anyone at the scene to attempt to enter — except Josh Dunn, who is small of stature, and Mark Patrick who is only 13 years old.
Mike Patrick, Mark’s father, said his son and Josh Dunn volunteered to try to enter the cave opening, which measured no more than 10 inches high and no more than 18 inches wide.
During a Sunday interview, Mike Patrick admitted to being concerned about seeing his 13-year-old son enter the narrow cave opening.
He noted that he attached a rope to his son as a safety precaution before he entered the cave.
“It’s rough seeing your son in a place you can’t get to,” Mike Patrick said.
He noted that Josh Dunn entered the tiny opening first.
“He had to go in feet-first,” Mike Patrick said, noting that Dunn had to struggle to get his hips through a narrow point inside the cave and then had to remove his safety helmet in order to get his head through the opening.
He put the helmet back on once inside the cave, Patrick said of Dunn.
After passing through the narrow opening, Mike Patrick said, Dunn had to pivot about 90 degrees and bring his knees up to his chin in order to make it deeper into the cave.
After a second 90-degree turn, Mike Patrick said, Dunn reached a point overlooking a 20-to-25-foot-deep pit in which the dog was trapped.
After Dunn successfully entered the cave, young Mark Patrick followed, his father said.
Mark Patrick said he remained on a ledge overlooking the pit in which the dog was trapped while Dunn rappelled down into it using a rope.
Dog Found Asleep
Dunn said he found the dog asleep and, after awakening him, called for some dog food to be sent into the cave.
After allowing the dog to eat, Dunn said, he placed Sailor in a duffel bag and attached him to his harness before using his rope and climbing equipment to make his way out of the pit.
Once out of the pit, Dunn said, he passed the dog along to Mark Patrick who, in turn, guided the dog back out to a point in the cave where Mike Patrick was waiting.
Dunn said he pushed the dog in front of him while Mark Patrick pulled.
“When the dog saw me, he tried to turn around and go back,” Mike Patrick said. “I didn’t think we were going to be able to get him out at first.”
He noted that his son had to stretch Sailor’s back legs out behind him in order for him to fit through the narrowest point in the cave entrance.
When he passed the dog out of the cave to its waiting owner, Mike Patrick said, a celebration erupted among volunteers.
Unfortunately, he said, Dunn and his son were still inside the cave and facing the daunting task of getting back out of it.
After his son successfully negotiated the tricky passage, Mike Patrick said, Dunn began making his way out.
At one point, Mike Patrick said, Dunn had to struggle and contort his body to get through a narrow point but finally managed to make his way out of the cave.
Dog Back Home
When brought home on Saturday afternoon, Donna Sturm said, Sailor drank water, ate a small amount of dog food and curled up in the sun near the living room window in the Sturm home.
Travis Sturm said Sailor, who had weighed about 50 pounds before being trapped, had lost so much weight during his ordeal that he had to tighten the dog’s collar three notches to make it fit.
Amanda Jobe, a veterinary technician from Fall Branch who helped recruit and organize the rescue effort, said that Sailor had lost an estimated 10 pounds.
Jobe said the dog had some abrasions that needed attention and appeared to have been about the go into shock when he was rescued.
She noted that she planned to administer fluid intravenously to the dog on Saturday evening to stabilize Sailor’s condition.
As a Greeneville Sun reporter spoke with the Sturms and Jobe, Sailor wandered around the house apparently in search of food — something he hadn’t seen for a week.
Travis Sturm said he had owned Sailor for four years and hunted with the dog regularly. He credited the dog’s good physical condition with helping him survive the ordeal.
Strurm thanked everyone who had taken part in the rescue effort, but didn’t want to name names for fear of leaving someone out.
However, he did say he wished to personally thank neighbor Cletus Tullock for bringing his backhoe to the scene and using it for two days to help enlarge the cave opening.
Volunteers sealed the entrance to the cave when the ordeal was over.
