After more than 500 days on the run, Valerie the miniature dachshund has finally been found safe and well on Kangaroo Island in South Australia.
The pampered pet dog’s remarkable survival story has made global headlines since she went missing in November 2023 while on holiday with her owners at Stokes Bay, a remote part of the island known for its wild terrain.
Yet 529 days later, volunteers from Kangala Wildlife Rescue said they were “absolutely thrilled” to announce that Valerie was finally captured.
“Kangala Wildlife Rescue is overjoyed to announce the successful rescue of Valerie,” the group said in a statement posted on TikTok.
“After weeks of tireless efforts … by volunteers and partner organisations Valerie has been safely rescued and is fit and well.
“We are absolutely thrilled and deeply relieved that Valerie is finally safe and able to begin her transition back to her loving parents.”
Kangala rescuers Jared and Lisa shared a video on Facebook detailing Valerie’s rescue, saying she finally wandered into a trap set for her while “rummaging around, finding little food stashes all over the place”.
“There were many challenging moments over the past month,” the group said. “We are incredibly grateful to everyone who played a part in bringing Valerie home.”
The rescuers said Valerie had made it through alive by entering survival mode and was now exhibiting behaviours associated with “lost dog syndrome”. “When a dog gets lost… once that dog realises the stress that’s going on, they basically have to fend for themselves,” Lisa said.
Valerie had escaped from her pen at a campsite during a family trip with her owners, New South Wales couple Georgia Gardner and Josh Fishlock. Despite extensive searches involving the support of local volunteers, she seemed to have completely vanished into the dense scrubland of Kangaroo Island – an area six times the size of Singapore and home to rugged beaches, farmland and wildlife.
Ms Gardner recalled how Valerie “never left my side” before the disappearance and said she was astonished the small dog had survived alone in the wild.
“She was not a very outside, rough-and-tough dog,” she toldThe Guardian last month. “To think that she even went one night outside in the rain, oh my gosh.”
In the months after Valerie’s disappearance, reported sightings began to emerge, but she remained elusive. Kangala Wildlife Rescue used cameras, surveillance, and specially prepared traps to try and catch her, but she would flee at the first sight of humans or vehicles.
However, just when hopes of her rescue began fading, in March, Valerie was spotted alive, over 16 months after her disappearance.
The Kangala Wildlife Rescue confirmed her survival through video evidence and set traps with cameras to try to catch her. One picture showed her distinctive oversized ears poking out from paddock stubble.
“Based on first-hand accounts and video evidence we now know that Valerie is alive,” the group wrote in a statement last month.
Despite being a “princess” and not suited for the wild, Valerie’s remarkable resilience has surprised her owners.
“We thought, instead of her surviving out in the wild, maybe someone had kind of adopted her or she was hanging out with some other dogs and getting their food, because she was an absolute little princess,” Ms Gardner said.
Kangala wrote they used surveillance and various trapping and luring methods in the area she was last seen to try and bring her home. They also asked public to report any sightings and “a lot of luck”.
The recovery effort is estimated to have involved more than 1,000 hours of volunteer time and around 5,000km of travel across the island.
Valerie’s survival against the odds had amazed both rescuers and experts, who speculated that she may have eaten roadkill, dam water, or possibly received help from locals.
Paul McGreevy, a professor at the University of Sydney’s veterinary school, previously told The Guardian that dachshunds, like all dogs, are “extremely resourceful”, describing dogs as “the greatest opportunists in the animal kingdom”.
Residents of Kangaroo Island, which has previously made global headlines for its devastating bushfires in 2020, had been watching Valerie’s saga unfold with a mixture of hope and disbelief.
“Kangaroo Island is known for many things … dogs that survive for 500 days is not what you expect,” local animal lover Louise Custance said in April, according to The Guardian.
