🌭 Valerie
Dog (Miniature Dachshund) · Albury, New South Wales, Australia — lost on Kangaroo Island, South Australia
Lives in The Meme House
Valerie is a miniature dachshund who slipped her pen during a camping trip on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, in November 2023, aged about one, and was not caught again for 529 days. Volunteers from Kangala Wildlife Rescue spent more than 1,000 hours and roughly 5,000 km building a remote-triggered trap pen baited with chicken, tuna and her own toys, and wore strips of a shirt owner Georgia Gardner had worn for 12 hours so they would smell like home. She walked in on 25 April 2025 heavier than when she vanished, having apparently lived on roadkill and dam water on an island that holds venomous snakes and wedge-tailed eagles. The capture footage ran worldwide.
What they do
Wags her entire back half — tail whipping one way while the long body S-bends the other, front paws braced. Three frames: rear swung left, body straight, rear swung right..
Small, low, and completely uninterested in your plans. Survived a wilderness on spite and roadkill.
Lore
- ★She went missing at about 8 pounds and came back at nearly 13 — she gained weight living rough.
- ★Kangaroo Island is roughly 1,700 square miles; she was found about nine miles from where she vanished.
- ★Rescuers created a scent trail from her own toys and a shirt her owner had worn for 12 hours at a time.
- ★The trap pen had a remote-controlled door — director Jared Karran pressed the button once she was fully inside.
Helping the real one
💛 Support Valerie via Kangala Wildlife RescueKangala Wildlife Rescue is a volunteer-run not-for-profit on Kangaroo Island, founded in 2020 after the Black Summer bushfires. Its Donorbox page is headed 'CATCHING VALERIE | Kangala Wildlife Rescue' and was live when fetched. This opens their own official page. Money never touches this site.
Where this comes from
- NBC News Escaped dog in Australia rescued after 529 days alone in the wilderness ↗
- Smithsonian Magazine Valerie the miniature dachshund rescued after 529 days on a rugged Australian island ↗
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