Dog Rescued After 120-Foot Fall and 17 Hours Stuck on Cliff, Bystanders Say It Was a ‘Miracle’ Pup Survived

A dog named Carl fell off a Tennessee cliff with a ‘200-foot drop’ and was rescued by firefighters, who used high-angle rope rescue systems to get to the pet and bring him to safety.

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A dog named Carl fell off a Tennessee cliff with a “200-foot drop” and was stuck on a ledge for 17 hours

Firefighters used high-angle rope rescue systems to safely retrieve Carl from the steep embankment and bring him back up the cliff

Carl sustained only minor injuries and is back to normal after the emotional rescue, his owner said

A dog in Tennessee barked up the wrong tree — or in his case, the wrong cliff.

The City of Dickson Fire Department (CDFD) in Dickson County, Tennessee shared on social media on Friday, Aug. 14 that members of several different departments came together to rescue a dog named “Carl,” who had gotten stuck on a ledge after falling off a cliff.

Carl’s owner, Scott Grissom, 65, told The Washington Post that the incident started when he went to a friend’s farm 45 minutes west of Nashville on Aug. 13, and he and his friend let their dogs off their leashes to explore the farm and splash in the creek.

Grissom said he and his friend then drove to a lookout point above a cliff on a neighboring farm a little before 6 p.m., but they noticed something was wrong when Grissom called for Carl and the canine did not come back.

“Then we heard him barking down the side of the cliff. And this is a 200-foot drop, straight wall going down,” he recalled.

Carl, a five-year-old Lagotto Romagnolo, fell about 120 feet down, according to a local news report, per Storyful. The canine then spent about 17 hours stuck there overnight before crews could safely get him down.

City of Dickson Fire Department/Facebook

Grissom told Storyful that he was terrified for his beloved pet, who had not left his side since his wife died five years ago.

“I was heartbroken,” Grissom said, per Storyful. “I was scared to death.”

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The CDFD said the rescue mission was complicated because Carl was on a ledge about 100 feet above a steep embankment. Members of the fire department’s Special Operations Response Team were deployed on the cliff using “high angle rope rescue systems.”

“These mechanical advantage systems provide the safest means to lower, and raise, rescuers and victims… even our four-legged ones,” the CDFD said in a statement, adding that these were the “exact situations” their members trained for.

City of Dickson Fire Department/Facebook

Video taken by Bert Echols of the nearby Timber Ridge Farm and shared with Storyful shows the impressive rescue. In the footage, a pair of fire special operations team members, hooked onto ropes, rappel down the cliff to where the dog stands on a small embankment.

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One of the rescuers gets close to the canine and takes him into his arms before placing him in a duffel bag. Once the dog is secure, the rescuers work as a team to ascend the bag with Carl back up the cliff.

City of Dickson Fire Department/Facebook

At the end of the successful rescue, Carl was reunited with an emotional Grissom as they stood surrounded by fire crews in one photo the CDFD shared.

Grissom told The Washington Post that a vet confirmed that Carl had sustained only minor injuries in the incident. After a couple of days of stiffness, the owner said Carl was back to normal.

“He’s running around and chasing balls like nothing ever happened,” Grissom told the outlet.

Echols added to Storyful, “It is a miracle that that dog lived.”