An Australian couple is going viral after their miniature dachshund, named Valerie, was finally rescued after somehow surviving 17 months in the wilderness on Kangaroo Island.
In November 2023, Josh Fishlock and Georgia Gardner took a camping trip to Kangaroo Island, a remote locale off the coast of Southern Australia, along with their canine companion, Valerie.
The couple decided to go fishing, leaving Valerie behind in a crate, when she broke out and split. Despite wearing an Apple AirTag on her collar and even being microchipped, neither Gardner nor Fishlock could locate their beloved pet.
After days of searching and asking locals for help, the two ultimately decided to return to the mainland, resigned to the fact that they might never see their beloved dachshund again. Given the wealth of wildlife on the island, which includes venomous snakes, albatrosses, bats, feral pigs and more, the odds were stacked against her.
Valerie’s miraculous story of survival in the harsh wilderness of Kangaroo Island has made her a local celebrity.
“Leaving the island was probably the hardest decision I think I’ve ever made in my life. We went over there as three, and we were going back as two. It was a very horrible feeling,” Fishlock said in an interview with NPR.
“We definitely had to be realistic that we might never get her home. And we had to move through that grief,” Gardner added.
Valerie the dachshund survives 17 months alone in the wild
Months passed, and soon, it’d been more than a year since Valerie had run away. But in February 2025, a farmer working on Kangaroo Island took a photo of a dog that looked exactly like Valerie trotting across a field.
Eventually, this picture made its way to the island’s Kangala Wildlife Rescue Facebook page, who had previously spoken with Fischlock and Gardner about Valerie’s disappearance back in November.
In a testament to her survival skills, it took rescuers around two months to successfully trap the 10lb pup, using food, dog toys, and even her owners’ clothing covered with their scent.
Farmer’s Dog DigestAfter two months, rescuers finally managed to trap little Valerie and bring her home safely.
Eventually, they finally caught her in a ‘cat trap,’ and were left stunned by how healthy she seemed. Reports state that the dachshund actually gained weight during her time in the wild, with Kangaroo Island’s very own mayor theorizing that she must have been fed by someone. (Rescuers surmise that Valerie likely fed off animal carcasses and dug shelters for herself out of the ground.)
“There’s no way a four-kilo dog could survive that long,” Gardner told NPR, equally shocked by her survival.
Now, Valerie is safe and sound at home, protected from the dangers she braved for 17 months all by herself… but her owners say the experience made her more confident.
“She’s come back a bit more independent,” Gardner said. “She’s still quite attached to us, but she’s stronger and more on her own.”
Thanks to her viral survival story, Valerie has become somewhat of a local celebrity, and even boasts a popular Instagram page with over 14,000 followers who tune in to watch her adorable adventures with her family.
This is just the latest pet rescue story to stun the internet after a beloved cat living at a Lowe’s in Richmond, Virginia, was successfully rescued after climbing into a delivery truck and being driven over 85 miles away to Garysburg, North Carolina, earlier this year.
