She survived more than a year in the Australian wilderness. But reuniting her with her owners will take a little more time.
Kangaroo Island, South Australia, where Valerie the dachshund was lost for over 500 days.Credit…Susan Wright for The New York Times
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 re-acclimated 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. Ms. Gardner had called Valerie “not a very outside, rough-and-tough dog,” but the dachshund might have survived by drinking from dams and eating roadkill and plants, rescuers said. A rescue was not simple, as Valerie had a tendency to run as soon as humans approached. Traps and cameras were set up. “It was just a matter of waiting for Valerie,” Mr. Karran said.
She began to enter a large trap that had been set up for her, 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,” Mr. Karran said in a video detailing the capture. “You could see little ‘click, click, click’ moments,” as the dog remembered her home.” Still, rescuers refrained from snapping the trap shut the instant she was inside. 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, and waiting until she seemed comfortable. When Valerie ventured into a far corner of the trap one day, they triggered the door remotely. “She handled that well,” Mr. Karran said. Valerie was a little thinner than when she had escaped, and had a few scars, but she was in surprisingly good condition. But a tearful reunion with her owners will not come immediately. Valerie, like many in her circumstances, had “lost dog syndrome” — a survival mode of sorts. That’s part of why having her owners simply call for her would very likely not have worked, said Lisa Karran, who also works at the rescue center, and might even have made the dog run further away.
The next step in Valerie’s rehabilitation was allowing people to enter her trap while she was inside. They did not approach her or make eye contact at first. There was a good sign: Valerie did not shrink back or seem afraid. “I was blown away watching it,” Mr. Karran said. “I never thought she’d be sitting in someone’s lap in three hours.” 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.” Ms. Karran said: “The dog is still there, her personality, everything. It just takes time.” Noting Valerie’s small size, she said, “When you see her, you think, ‘How did you survive for that long?’” As for her owners? “Josh and Georgia are over the moon,” Mr. Karran said. They will be reunited with Valerie in another week.
By Victor Mather for NYTimes
