‘A feat of bravery’

The afternoon of Nov. 6, Adam Williams received a phone call.

That itself wasn’t something that would put him in the national spotlight.

It was the question from the caller, his answer, and the outcome, that eventually did.

“How would you feel about rappelling down into a hole to rescue a hunting dog?”

“Sure, that sounds like fun.”

The next morning, Williams descended into an 81-foot hole in the Lihue-Koloa Forest Reserve to reach a 1-year-old catahoula hunting dog that been stranded there five days.

He placed the weary pup in a canvas bag, and it was hoisted to safety. A happy ending.

The story quickly made the rounds: A dog that survived a long fall, was trapped, and the hero who risked his life to save him.

“It all could have came and went without anyone being the wiser,” said Williams, a certified arborist — which requires expert climbing and rappelling skills — with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife.

But it didn’t.

DLNR’s public information team went into action and turned out a story and pictures of the dramatic scene. Local and national publications quickly ran with it.

“I heard from my father-in-law in Vermont,” Williams said. “He was watching ‘Fox and Friends’ the following Saturday and I was on there.”

The recognition was nice, but a bit uncomfortable, too.

“I never expected it to blow up so big, but I guess everyone is really craving some happy news,” he said.

The accolades continued Friday as proclamations in his honor were presented by Mayor Derek S.K. Kawakami and Councilwoman Felicia Cowden on behalf of the County Council.

“We read a story in The Garden Island newspaper that really warmed our hearts to hear about the efforts that went into saving man’s best friend,” Kawakami said.

He read the proclamation, “Botanist to the Rescue Day,” that commended “the heroic actions of Adam Williams and his team with the DLNR.”

“We’re very thankful to have folks like you,” the mayor said.

He said he got to visit the rescue site and take a look down the deep, dark hole, and said what Williams did was “truly a feat of bravery.”

Cowden read the council’s proclamation, which said in part: “The successful and heartwarming rescue of Orange could not have been possible without Adam and the many volunteers who never gave up rescuing a little dog named Orange.”

“Next time we need a rescue, we know who to call,” Cowden said with a smile.

DOFAW Kauai Branch Manager Sheri S. Mann said, “Absolutely, it was a heroic act on Adam’s part.

“We’re so glad he took the time and effort to get training and learn how to do that kind of work, that he had the guts and fortitude to go down and save Orange,” she said.

Williams said it was his pleasure.

“I have never done anything quite like that before,” he said.

When Orange fell into the hole on Nov. 2, his owner, Tarvan Orsatelli, had a GPS tracker on him and was able to locate him quickly. Over several days Orsatelli, friends and family members lowered food and water into the hole, while trying to figure out how to extract him, a DLNR press release said.

Enter Williams and that phone call. He was used to climbing down cliffs in search of rare plants, but descending into the dark was something new.

“Compared to rappelling off the side of a cliff that may be several hundred feet or a thousand feet, this felt a lot less scary to me,” he said.

After Williams and Mann surveyed the scene, they decided it was safe to attempt the rescue.

Told the hole was 81-feet deep, Williams tied a 100-foot rope to a “stout guava tree” and headed down, guided by his headlight, as a dozen people waited at the top.

“Nobody knew what the situation was going to be in the bottom of the hole,” he said. “I was just hoping the dog was going to be healthy and whole.”

When his feet finally touched ground, he saw Orange. Initially, the dog seemed afraid, and Williams worried he was going to have to chase it through dark, damp tunnels. But before he could free himself from the rope, he looked down “and the dog was right next to me.”

“It really wanted to get out of there, and I think it realized that I was its ticket out,” Williams said.

“It had no fight left in it. It was totally docile. It let me pick it up and place it in the bag.”

He radioed to the top, and they pulled it up with a second rope, where its owner waited. Orange was hungry and thirsty, but OK.

It was all over in less than an hour.

Mann said a fence has been erected around the perimeter of the hole to prevent any further mishaps. The hole is in a state forest reserve and Mann and her team continue to explore options for potentially filling it in, a DLNR press release said.

Williams deflected the praise, noting he has two large dogs at home.

“I would hope somebody would do the same for my dog,” he said.

He said close to the same day the rescue of Orange was on the front page of TGI (Nov. 7), he had heard about Kauai firefighters rescuing a fallen hiker at Polihale.

Williams believed they should have received more publicity for their efforts than he did.

“I’m thinking, ‘These are the real heroes,’” he said. “They do this stuff every day.”

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Bill Buley, editor-in-chief, can be reached at 245-0457 or bbuley@thegardenisland.com.