A miniature dachshund has been found alive and well after being last seen by her owners more than 500 days ago when she went missing on a camping trip. Valerie the dog had not been seen by her worried owners Georgia Gardner and her boyfriend, Joshua Fishlock, since she disappeared on Kangaroo Island, off the coast of Australia, in November 2023.
The small breed of dog, which weighs only around 4kg, had been in a playpen when Ms Gardner and Mr Fishlock went fishing but when they returned she was nowhere to be found. Finding Valerie was going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack as Kanagroo Island, off the coast of the state of South Australia, has an area of over 1,700 miles is more than 90 miles long.
Worryingly, the landmass is also home to deadly snakes and the large wild canine predators, known as dingoes. There was also the searing heat and lack of shelter for Valerie, who would have to learn to find her own food and water.
Thankfully, the little dog’s owners and dedicated volunteers never gave up searching for Valerie and 529 days later she has been found.
Determined trackers from Kangala Wildlife Rescue worked around the clock to locate the lost pooch and eventually managed to lure her back to safety using an ingenious method.
The rescuers used pieces of a T-shirt worn by owner Ms Gardner to create a scent trail for Valerie to trace and follow. Posting on their Facebook page Kangala Wildlife Rescue released a statement on Friday.
It said: “Kangala Wildlife Rescue is overjoyed to announce the successful rescue of Valerie, the miniature dachshund who went missing on Kangaroo Island 529 days ago.
“We are absolutely thrilled and deeply relieved that Valerie is finally safe and able to begin her transition back to her loving parents, Josh and Georgia.
“The search for Valerie involved over 1,000 volunteer hours and more than 5,000 km travelled by volunteers in their private vehicles, the deployment and monitoring of numerous cameras and traps and the use of various forms of technology to successfully secure Valerie while ensuring her physical and psychological welfare.”
The rescue involved setting up a surveillance camera to watch a position where items of clothing and toys Valerie might recognise were placed. Eventually a remote cage trap filled with food was added.
Kangala directors and rescue volunteers, Jared and Lisa, shared a video explaining the rescue mission. Lisa said that initially it was feared Valerie had died after there were no sightings of her not long after she first went missing.
Detailing the fresh tactic to trace Valerie, Lisa said: “Right from the beginning we would get parts of her mum Georgia’s T-Shirt for the scent trail…Georgia was able to wear the T-shirt for 12-hour shifts and games of netball and sent that to us.
“We were able to rip little strips off it and started the process of adding more and more of those bits towards the trap site. We started off with Valerie’s scents, her toys, which were also sent to us.”
Lisa added that owners should keep items belonging to a missing dog because it was “really important” because the scent could help bring them home.
Valerie’s story has since gone global with media all over the world reporting on her rescue, leading her to be dubbed, “Australia’s favorite fugitive” by the New York Post.
