How far would you go to save your cat? This is about a man who fell down a 40-50 foot well trying to rescue his sister’s cat. I wanted to share this story with the readers here because it shows just how devoted people in my area are to their cats. This happened on January 29 in upstate South Carolina, USA, about an hour from my home.
Joey Dover, an animal lover, gave his sister a female, grey and white cat eight years ago, whom the sister named Buttons. On Wednesday, Joey attempted to climb down a well at his sister’s home in Gaffney shortly before 8 p.m. to rescue Buttons. The well was underneath the house (the bathroom in fact). Buttons, had been missing for several days, and from what I gathered Joey was under the house trying to get to the cat when things went wrong.
I’ve heard conflicting reports on whether Buttons was ever in the well. One news station reported he was and another said the cat wasn’t in the well. I lean toward believing Buttons had fallen in, and Joey heard meowing and decided to attempt a rescue.
Apparently, Joey had lowered himself into the well by tying a rope around the bumper of his truck. As mentioned, things didn’t go as planned, and Joey ended up falling fully down the well, all 50 feet of it.
“The cat was missing for seven days then my daughter could hear him hollering underneath the house and we knew there was a well under there,” Barbara Dover, Joey’s mom.
The Gaffney Fire Department, EMS and other volunteers had to rescue Joey from the well. Two men went down to rescue him. He spent two hours down the well, and was rescued around 10 p.m..
Keep in mind the outdoor temperature was around 20 F. degrees. One day earlier Spartanburg County experienced the worst ice storm in perhaps 30 years. Yet Joey was determined to save Buttons.
Joey was rescued and taken to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center and was released after the doctor’s decided he’d suffered no serious injuries. Joey’s mother told the local news media her son is “sore and resting.” This isn’t the first time one of their cats has ended up down a well.
The family reported several years ago a cat fell into the well. The cat was rescued by lowering down a bucket with food. That cat climbed in the bucket and was rescued. Our cat “Spot” spent two days down a well back in the 1980’s. He’d gone missing for two days and we finally heard him meowing from down the neighbors well. Another neighbor got a ladder and climbed down to rescue him.
Spot had an immediate vet visit, since he’d been standing in several inches of water. He had pneumonia and was put on medication. I hope Buttons had a vet visit to make sure there were no serious issues to deal with.
Joey, in my eyes you’re a hero. Even if things didn’t go quite the way you planned. Readers, would you risk your life to save a cat? Have you ever done anything totally off-the-wall for the sake of your feline companion? Please leave a comment.
Elisa
Sources: (a) wyff4.com (b) foxcarolina.com
I would go as far as possible, as our cats mean alot to us esp if something horrible was happening. They our babies, no money would be any worry.
I would probably go the whole way because I would be unable to stop myself.
I stick with Mr. Boston Rock n Rye. Whiskey with lemon straight no chaser. Works better for a cough for me because commercial cough syrups run my blood pressure up with the dangerous chemicals.
Oh, I’ll have a sip. And a sip of tequila too.
LOL you are a crazy bunch of cat protectors, almost as crazy as the poor bloke who fell down the well, (ding dong dell pussy and Joey in the well)so glad he and Buttons lived to tell the tale, he is the sort of man I could swoon over. I’m looking forward to Ruth’s poster of the derring-do of all the POCers and most impressed by the bravery. Elisa your pic is a good one except the vino, Ruth looks like a lush LOL whereas in fact she never touches a drop of wine as she doesn’t like it.
THAT’S why I didn’t upload Ruth’s photo herself. Maybe her inner lush came thru. I can’t drink wine. Gives me a migraine.
Wish I had a inner lush but learned my lesson long ago that hangovers are not nice lol
Moderation in all things these days is my motto lol
I’m good with wine. I’ll finish what you don’t want.
When we have our PoC party I will have a glass of ice cold lager and a G and T chaser, you can have the wine 😉
No. I’ll take the wine. Sorry 😉 I’ve got a cat wine glass. Gotta use it.
Nobody wants the scotch?
MINE, ALL MINE!!!
Sorry Dee but Babz is partial on happy occasions to a little drop of whisky with lemonade so you’ll have to leave her a tad 😉
Right come on everyone, who else wants to feature in the PoC Protectors of Cats poster? Share your brave (or crazy) deeds lol
So far I have:
Dee up a trees, on a roof and stopping traffic for a turtle.
Dorothy chasing coyotes, racoons and skunks away from her cats.
Babz on a pub roof TNR feral kittens.
Me down a well.
Hi Ruth, I held up traffic on a road once to let a cat cross safely. I was like a policeman 🙂
I LOVE that lol P(o)C Broad on duty, this might end up a whole series of posters lol
Living in London, I do tend sometimes to exercise my rights as a pedestrian against the nasty car. It is about demonstrating your intention to the driver. 🙂
Good job, Officer M!
I can put someone up a tree the same way I put Ruth and her boys in front of the doghouse.
Put me in a vets office with about 10 carriers and I’ll be saying there are more in my car.
10 carriers at once, that IS a nightmare scenario, we’ve taken four together at one time, ended up wrung out like old used floorcloths.
We took ours 4 at a time for spay/neuter. I did bring home a dozen kitten on one trip to the shelter but they were infected with panleuk and no one at the shelter bothered to tell us. We lost Sweetie, Sugar, Lilo, Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet within 4 days.
Stunned at what Elisa has done, I LOVE it 🙂
It is quite an interesting, mysterious and poetic picture. Of course we know the central character.
Now your reputation is ruined 🙂
Did I have one ? lol lol lol
Not anymore. Wish I had a coyote. I’d have done one using it.
Go to http://www.daisytrail.com and download the free CraftArtist. They have lots of free kids and many more that are a few dollars.
OMG free KIDS, the one from hell next door is quite enough lol
Sorry Elisa couldn’t resist, hope you can get some sleep 😉 x
That’s what I get for trying to type on the phone. Um KITS 🙂
Super!
So sweet, yet so funny. LOL!
R, are you loving the cat, earth, and life or are you drunk as a skunk?
Maybe I’m worshipping felines worldwide and celebrating our honour of having them in the world with us 😉
Very clever how Elisa has taken Walt and Jo and me from another photo on PoC somewhere, poor Walt looks sad watching, but the next photo showed him having a cuddle as he doesn’t like his belly kissed or to hold a finger in his furry paw.
You know what I just discovered? [as the Stinky Little Kitten Who Has Not Yet Been NEUTERED] lays against my chest…] No? So I will let you in on my little secret, and it WON’T cost you a cent…
…
Cats(kittens) *like* lying against your breast! You can move, re-situate, cough, zneeze, and little dear will stay there, because, simply put, he/she wants to know that you are ALIVE! and protecting her/him. I love that about my cats. They just want to get as close as they can, when they know their eyes are about to close and it’s dark outside.
Comments, please. 🙂 ?
So true. Marvin wants to keep track of where you are at all times. Lap, lying on the chest, across the legs….then he can rest knowing you are there. But in his case, I think he assumes HE is the protector.
DW, how do you get out of a situation where you are compromised? I mean, with your cat? When he is putting all of his weight on you, relaxed. Do you have guilt, which in turn, causes you to bond een more closely with him? And then, evetually, you do not *dare* move from the position, because you are afraid of making it worse, where he doesn’t trust you as much as he did?
Nah…I did that in the beginning, but I wanted him to know this is his home. It has taken him a long time to get used to ‘in the house’ sounds. I’d like him to get comfy enough that he will nap inside without thinking he has to participate in every little thing that is going on. For a wild cat, he is doing great. Today he napped while I painted. I was very quiet. He snored!
When he is on my lap or chest, I cannot be there as long as he can, so I get up when we have had ample time to bond. He is fine with it. But yes, it took me a while to get there. We are doing well, given this is his first home ever.
I am not worried about trust issues. He trusts me. I don’t trust the out of doors as much as he does. It will be a compromise our whole life together. And that is okay. He knows how to survive t there. I just have to learn to trust that a little more. But we are doing well. I actually love his life of a wild boy. And, I love how he turns into a love bug when he is home.
Thanks! I understand.
Doesn’t it feel good, while you can paint and he’s just sawing those logs? 🙂
Yes! Oddly enough, I was painting logs in a mountain lake scene. HA.
ha! do you like plein-air (assuming that you are not out in the landscape 😉
I am a lover of painting within the landscape, whether it be indoors (imagination) or outside w/my Cat romping about or sitting at my feet. The important thing is, I know that he is there. (I always have his back.)
DW? I’m at a loss. 🙁
Joey, we love you. Our pets are family- and that love transcends all. I myself have done dangerous, even maybe illegal things to rescue animals I have come across in need, since.. if we turn the other way, what good is the life we were given if not to help them live the ones they were given? Hooah Joey, and big hugs to you and Buttons.. and all animals that cross your path in what will hopefully be the rest of your very long and happy life!
Beautiful.
You are so on target, Laurelei.
No question about it… I would defy the law any day to save an animal.
OK that link for Facebook may not work. Just type in Elisa Black-Taylor, Writer and Photographer and it should come up on Facebook 🙂
It works Elisa and I have made it into a real link.
Sealy was in my lap all evening so I took the day off from writing. I didn’t have the heart to make him move.
All of you on Facebook need to like my page. I do a lot of dog and cat stories on Examiner. The cats are mostly helping raise vet money but the dog stories cover everything. Please click this: This is the first place I post to.
I love the idea of the bucket and rope. That showed brains. I was just about to ask if it turned out that Buttons was in the well and if he got saved when Joey did. Good thing Joey didn’t fall on Buttons! (Not that I care about Buttons much more than the nice man trying to save him, just that it would have kinda defeated the purpose).
A cat fell down into a storm drain at work once and was about 8 feet deep. I took a long wide strip of wood and angled it in the hole so the cat could get close enough to the top to jump out. Southerners are inventive 🙂
I fell down a drain once at the first vets I worked for, we used to cook meat for the dogs as it was boarding kennels too and strain the juices down the drain. Someone left the lid off! You can imagine how I stank when I dragged myself out covered in congealed fat lol
YUCK!!!
AND when I caught the pesky peke I was chasing to take over the office to return to Mrs Double Barrelled Surname who had some to collect him, he bit me AND she looked down her posh nose and said ‘Oh girl, you DO smell’
Now that’s a thought. Joey could have fallen onto Buttons. It was a high risk rescue. I don’t think the house owner knew their was a well under her bathroom! I think it needs to be covered…
Elisa, thank you so much for this article.
I am, always, up for a hero story.
It renews my faith in mankind.
I can never get enough of your writings.
Thank you for enhancing this article Michael. I’ll be a lot of readers don’t realize we team up on some of these.
When I wrote this a lot of info here wasn’t available. The news didn’t release any names the first night. Only that he’d fallen and was rescued.
The cat was in the well and he saved it’s little life. I love men who care enough to do something like this.
I agree Elisa it was a confused situation. It was rather sketchy. I wanted to add some photos. I took them from the videos which don’t work on PoC. I am very impressed with Joey. Great bloke. Probably better than me.
There are a lot of people like him in my area
It is a “CLC” – Cat Lovers Community!
Yuppers! No doubt in my mind …. I would be down the well.
Fortunately, we don’t have many wells here.
But, I have been up in trees, on roofs, and dodging traffic. Nothing as heroic as what Joey did.
Ruth Katta could make a clever poster of you up a tree, on the roof, and stopping traffic.
I went up a tree once for a cat named Ketzel. She didn’t need me too, but I felt compelled. I’ve chased coyotes, raccoons and skunks away from the cats. I am fearless when there is a cause.
Chasing coyotes is brave indeed. So happy I never had to do that. But, those coons are so on my nerves; they’re relentless and never satiated.
I’ve never encountered a skunk either, but have seen 2 civet cats over the years.
Well, I hope Michael puts up some pictures of a Civet cat. Maybe I’ll do a search here on POC.
I love the new slogan. Protector Of Cats.
http://cat-chitchat.pictures-of-cats.org/2008/08/see-wild-cats-at-night.html
It looks like a cat mixed with a raccoon!
It’s very odd and rarely seen; but, their scent is similar to a skunk.
In the dark, one time, I thought it was a cat eating the cat food in the woods.
lol Dorothy yes that gives me another idea, funny how something someone mentions can sew a seed xx
sow a seed silly me
Yes, Ruth, you’ll have to do a poster of DW chasing coyotes, climbing trees and getting covered in skunk scent… 😉
Absolutely! With a red cape and an emblem across her chest P O C = Protector of Cats
I think I can take a picture of Ruth kneeling and put a tree from my Daisy Trail software under her. Ruth would you like a bird or butterfly on your shoulder 🙂
I think a butterfly would be beautiful, Elisa.
Independent, spreading joy, loving life…
I would love to see that.
Funny about stopping traffic. I, actually, did that one time on my side of Interstate 75 to help a turtle, stepping off the median into traffic, cross the road. People were very kind about it.
Of course you did.
Don’t you have armadillos in Florida? They tend to cross the street pretty slow as well.
Yes, the poor armadillos are creamed all the time on roads here. They’re very sweet natured, very fearful, and very slow.
They’re pretty solitary, but I did see a family one time.
Amazing prehistoric looking creatures they are. Poor things. They haven’t adapted well to mankind taking their space.
And they stink! in the Springtime while everything else is smelling pretty. 😉 Bless’em – I love watching them come through the edge of the Mark Twain Forest on my Great Aunt Anna’s country property down in Arkansas. Their gleaming topsides weave a lovely gossamer fabric with the golden sandstone and copper across the hillside. (I’ve never seen one get hit on the road, thank goodness.)
LOL! I never notice a foul odor, Caroline. Maybe my sense of smell is desensitized after all of these years with cats.
But, in actuality, we stink to most animals.
Dee…I said it was Springtime! [what happens in..oh. you got it. I’m slow. 😉
of course we do, but I don’t think that many of us are out there trying to ‘hump’ multiple beautiful homo sapiens out in the hills. 😉 And this is what Armadillos do in the backyard where my Great Aunt resides. I love’em, but it isn’t as much fun as the black mama bears with their cubs who decide to nuzzle on the glass door on the sunporch where I’m trying to sleep at eleven in the evening.
😉
Sorry, but you asked for it, Dee! <3
LOL. You’d definitely be down the well. I’d hold the rope 😉
LOL. Not alone, I hope. “…and Michael came tumbling after.”
An 11 year old fell in one a few days before this. He was trespassing on property and the well was boarded over. So what did he do? He jumped on the board until it broke. He broke his arm but the owner didn’t press charges.
Nowhere near as heroic as Joey of course but I have been down a well to save a kitten:
https://pictures-of-cats.org/ding-dong-dell-pussys-in-the-well.html
Thankfully it wasn’t too deep and the bottom was firm but even so I and I’m sure other PoCers too would do the same as Joey and attempt a rescue even from the deepest well, not only for our own cats but for any cat stuck down one.
You know Ruth, I remember your article about saving that cat. I am sure I would try and save Buttons if I was in Joey’s situation but…I am not sure I’d go down that well. I’d probably look for some help, somewhere. Joey was very brave and committed to do what he did.
It was great fun reading that one again.