The first thing Rochette did was offer the stranded pup a slice of salami. She snatched it right up.
“She was really happy about that, but she was very clearly injured and needed to get out of the cave,” said Rochette, who was with three other cavers that day, July 7.
Rochette, who works for a Colorado-based cave simulation company, was in Virginia to teach a cave safety and conservation program. On his day off, he met up with two local cavers to explore the area, which is near the West Virginia border. The cave they picked has a vertical entrance and is 50-feet deep, so they rigged ropes at the surface of the sinkhole to rappel in — and that’s when they found the terrified and stranded dog inside.
“We were not expecting to do a rescue that day,” said Dave Jackson, Rochette’s boss at the cave company, who was with him on the trip.
“It was just complete happenstance that we chose that cave,” Rochette said. “There are so many caves that we could have gone to.”
Rochette, a wilderness first responder and former EMT, assessed the dog’s condition after his peace offering of salami. She was not able to stand up.
“She let me pick her up,” said Rochette, who moved the pup onto a foam pad for comfort and warmth. “She instantly relaxed down into my arms and was like, ‘okay, you’re here to help me.’”
The dog was visibly in distress.
“She was shivering, and she was cold,” Rochette said. “She clearly had been there for several days.”
The crew of cavers quickly insulated the dog, wrapping her in tarps, a space blanket they brought for emergencies, as well as a piece of an old jacket they found in the cave. They offered her water, which she refused to drink at first unless it was directly from Rochette’s fingers.
“She was very quiet,” said Rochette, noting that the cave was filled with deer skulls and bones. “It was actually very clear that she was not the only animal that had fallen in.”
Then began the challenging rescue effort.
“You always worry about the patient, but you also worry about the rescuers,” Jackson said.
The cavers had emergency equipment with them, but nothing that was designed for dogs, so they improvised.
“We used everything we had,” Rochette said.
They decided Rochette would remain in the cave with the dog and be pulled up alongside her to avoid the dog hitting any protruding rocks.
“It gets narrower as you go down, and then it opens up again,” said Rochette.
They created a makeshift harness using a tarp and webbing.
“We went ahead and made a sling, like a hammock of sorts,” said Rochette, explaining they rigged a system to hoist the two to the surface using pulleys, carabiners and ascenders.
Rochette, who has two dogs, kept her calm.
“I was staying with her, supporting her, keeping her comfortable so she wasn’t squirming,” he said. “I kind of guided us around all of those rocks as we came up and out of the cave.”
The rescue effort took about three hours.
“It took some time to get us all the way up and out of the cave,” said Rochette, noting that although he had never rescued an animal from a cave, it’s not an uncommon thing for professional cavers to do.
“As we came up into that fresh air, she lifted her nose up and she started sniffing,” he said. “You could see it was a moment of realization that she was not in the cave anymore.”
Once they were a safe distance from the cave’s opening, they laid the dog down on the forest floor.
“She was very glad to be out of the ordeal,” said Rochette, adding that they decided to name her SPAR-C — an acronym for “small party assisted rescue.” The added C represents canine.
The dog could barely move, so the cavers brought her directly to a nearby animal hospital. She was then transported to the Giles County Animal Shelter, where she is recovering from a swollen spinal cord — which has impacted her mobility — and Lyme disease. She also had difficulty putting weight on her back legs and had redness in her eyes, though her vision seemed unaffected. Remarkably, the pup had no broken bones.
“She was obviously in an immense amount of pain, but what a trouper of a dog,” said Skylar Sojka, the shelter manager. “She was a great patient.”
The dog — who Sojka and shelter staff are calling “Sparsy” — is a pit bull mix and is probably between ages 5 and 7. She wasn’t wearing a collar and did not have a microchip. No one has showed up to claim her, but Sojka said based on her weight, it’s likely she was well taken care of before the incident.
Sojka shared Sparsy’s story on the shelter’s Facebook page to try to track down her owner and help raise money for her medical expenses.
“She was there in total darkness — alone. Some call it fate, some call it luck, but this was nothing short of a miracle,” she wrote in the post, detailing the rescue effort, which was first reported by WDJB.
It’s unclear how Sparsy ended up in the cave, though someone commented on one of the shelter’s posts, saying they might have spotted her on July 4 during the start of fireworks. Many dogs are petrified of fireworks.
One thing is for sure, Rochette said: “She had a long fall. She was lucky she missed the fate of the cave.”
“I’m so appreciative of Jesse and the rest of the people that were there,” said Sojka. “If they didn’t do what they did, I think we all know what the end result would be.”
Rochette — who will offer free mobile caving experiences in Roanoke this weekend — went to visit Sparsy at the shelter on Monday. She was already making strides.
“After spending three hours connected to each other, it felt like the right thing to do,” he said. “She’s a super sweetheart.”
The adoration seems to be mutual.
“When she saw him, there was just a noticeable ‘I remember you,’” said Sojka. “I saw her give him kisses on the face.”
Over the past few days, Sparsy’s health has improved, and she is now able to walk a few feet.
“To see her turn around so quickly after what she had been through, it just really warmed my heart,” said Sojka.
The shelter plans to keep Sparsy for at least another week during her recovery.
“I want to make sure she’s feeling her best before she goes out into the world,” said Sojka.
Rochette said if he wasn’t on the road for work, he would consider adopting her. He added that he’ll always have a soft spot for Sparsy.
“This is an animal who went through a pretty dismal few days with not a lot of hope,” he said. “This is a success story.”
