Valerie disappeared in November 2023, slipping out of her pen and into the bush on Australia’s Kangaroo Island. For the next 529 days, the miniature dachshund eluded capture, despite the occasional spotting by locals and surveillance cameras.
Now, her journey is finally over. Valerie has been recaptured “safe and sound,” her rescuers said late last week, and she is now being reacclimated to domestic life in preparation for a reunion with her owners.
“It was a long tough battle” finding Valerie, said Jared Karran of Kangala Wildlife Rescue, which helped lead the efforts to find the dachshund.
Valerie and her owners, Josh Fishlock and Georgia Gardner, were visiting Kangaroo Island off the coast of Adelaide, South Australia, about 17 months ago when the miniature dachshund escaped from her pen and disappeared.
The couple and locals searched for her for five days before reluctantly giving up.
But more than a year later, Valerie was spotted about 10 miles from where she had escaped. She was recognized in part by the pink collar she was wearing the day she disappeared.
Valerie might have survived by drinking from dams and eating roadkill and plants, rescuers said.
Traps and cameras were set up as part of the rescue effort, Karran said.
Valerie began to enter a large trap, lured by her favorite dog food, toys and pieces of a T-shirt from her owners. “The T-shirt especially seemed to help her regain her memory,” Karran said in a video detailing the capture.
Still, rescuers refrained from snapping the trap shut immediately. They wanted to make Valerie’s transition back to society as smooth as possible, they said, so over two weeks they allowed her to come and go, monitoring her by camera.
When Valerie ventured into a far corner of the trap one day, they triggered the door remotely.
“She handled that well,” Karran said. Valerie was thinner than when she had escaped and had a few scars, but she was in surprisingly good condition.
Now, “she’s doing really, really well, but we’re seeing things she’ll need to get through,” he added. “We’re all pretty surprised at how well it’s gone.”
As for her owners? “Josh and Georgia are over the moon,” Karran said. They will be reunited with Valerie in another week.