A dog was missing. Cavers found her two months later 500 feet underground.

A dog was shining on something he'd never seen before in a cave when his flashlight shone on him.

She was too weak to wag her tail or cry, and she was skinny with matted fur.

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The last thing he expected to see was a dog, but that's what he saw. She didn't know how long she had been there.

"We realized it would be hard to get her out because she was too weak to walk," said the 59-year-old, who was on a spelunking trip with a small group.

He went out of the cave and took a photo of the dog.

Rick Haley, a caving enthusiast who happened to be nearby, heard that a dog was trapped in a cave and needed to be rescued. He volunteered to go back into the dark with the pup.

Haley had just been surveying the Tom Moore Cave system for the Cave Research Foundation and knew they had to get her out.

The only way to save the dog was to carry her up.

She would die if we didn't get her out, said Haley, who has been a caver for 30 years. It would be difficult to get her out of the way. We were willing to go for it.

The photo of the dog was shown to the people who lived near the cave. One of them recognized her as the dog that went missing in June.

She may have been swept inside during a flash flood or she may have chased an animal into the cave.

Knowing that someone was looking for her made them want to get her.

It took them more than an hour to carry her through low and narrow tunnels to the surface in a padded duffel bag. The dog's head was poking out of the top.

Haley said that at one point they had to slither through mud in a long corkscrew tunnel because of the tight hand.

It was exhausting because it was the fourth time through the cave. We didn't take it very quickly.

Cave State has more than 7,300 recorded caves and the cave tunnel system is one of the longest in the state.

She was calm and relaxed as they moved her through the tight spaces.

He said that she was thin and weak from not having enough food. Water was in the cave. She wouldn't be here without that.

She had long claws, which indicated that she hadn't been in a while, he said.

Jeff Bohnert rushed to get her when the pair surfaced with her. A neighbor told him about the photo.

Two months after her disappearance, his dog was found 500 feet underground.

He said that the cave is about two miles from his house. She's alive and well. It took her a while to get used to being in the dark. She's on her way.

He and his wife made a large amount of chicken soup for her to eat.

She's weak but she's responding to the food.

On the day she went missing, she was playing off leash with their other dog, Summer, as they like to do.

He said that only one dog returned. I knew something wasn't right when she didn't show up. It was sad to know she wasn't with us.

He said he tried to find her but couldn't.

He got her as a puppy for his daughter when she was 8 years old.

He said that she is happy to be back with Summer and the family cat, Fuzzy.

The cavers were given a gallon of ice cream by the man who gave it to them.

The two people said they were happy to go.

If it weren't for our cave projects, we wouldn't have found that dog. I fell asleep with a smile on my face after my head hit the pillow.

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