source : the age
A year and a half after a miniature dachshund vanished into the wilderness of Kangaroo Island, a local wildlife rescue group has captured the now-world-famous pet owned by a NSW couple.
Georgia Gardner and Josh Fishlock, from Albury, went on a camping trip to the rugged island off South Australia in November 2023 with their dog Valerie in tow. While the couple headed to the beach one day, Valerie wriggled out of her pen.
Josh Fishlock and Georgia Gardner with their miniature dachshund Valerie before she went missing on a camping trip.Credit:
Witnesses attempted to approach the sausage dog on the loose. That’s when little Valerie, with a pink collar and a body the size of a one-litre drink bottle, got spooked and pelted into the scrub.
Gardner and Fishlock spent five terrible days scouring the bush alongside locals for any sign of Valerie, before heading back, heartbroken, to the mainland.
But then, a month ago, hope rekindled. Kangala Wildlife Rescue said they’d received word of several sightings about 15 kilometres from where Valerie disappeared. An image of a stout black body running across a dry grass plain emerged, as tantalising and grainy as a hoax photo of a yowie.
Valerie spotted in the wilds of Kangaroo Island earlier this month.Credit: Kangala Wildlife Rescue
“Based on firsthand accounts and video evidence we now know that Valerie is alive,” the post read. “She runs at the first sign of humans or vehicles and despite the best efforts of dedicated Island locals, Valerie has been impossible to catch.
“This is a tiny dog in a huge area, and we will need help from the public to report any sightings and a lot of luck.”
A flood of media coverage followed, from local TV news to The New York Times. A benefactor lent the rescuers a Starlink system to set up a network of 4G cameras around a trap site.
The volunteers installed a cage and filled the area with dog treats and roast chicken. The skittish and possibly feral dachshund began to visit the site every few days.
But capture remained elusive, the rescue group said, because a procession of possums, wallabies, kangaroos, goannas and feral cats would enter the trap and steal bait left out for Valerie. If the weather turned bad she’d “go to ground” again for days.
Valerie shortly after being successfully captured.Credit: Kangala Wildlife Rescue
Last week, as the rescue operation closed in with a plan to install a remote trigger system for the cage door, Gardner spoke of her disbelief the dog had survived so long.
“When she did live with us she didn’t even like to spend a night out in the yard, let alone 500 days,” she told The Project.
“Being so small, although it could be a disadvantage, it’s also an advantage – she wouldn’t need much food to survive, or much water,” she said, adding Valerie may have eked a living off roadkill and dam water.
Last night, after 529 days, an estimated 1000 hours of volunteers’ time and 5000 kilometres covered in the search, the rescue group announced they’d finally captured Valerie with the remotely triggered trap.
“For anyone who’s ever lost a pet, your feelings are valid and never give up hope,” Gardner wrote in a Facebook post thanking Valerie’s rescuers.
“Sometimes good things happen to good people.”
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