- How’s this for a feel-good story?
If The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit taught us anything, it’s not to judge someone’s abilities based on their size. Even the smallest of us can achieve the greatest things.
This tiny dachshund sure did.
Valerie the miniature dachshund was recently with her family. She had been missing for a year and a half — which equals half her life.
In late 2023, Valerie escaped from her enclosure while vacationing with her owners in Australia. The slippery little puppy disappeared into the bush.
That was the last her owners saw of her. They hoped against hope that Valerie would return home, but with each passing month, it seemed less and less likely.
Then, a miracle happened. Valerie was spotted alive and well, having survived in the wild for more than a year.
Yet, she wasn’t coming home yet. The dachshund had become even sneakier, and it took rescuers almost two months to finally catch her.
Now, a year and a half later, Valerie is finally back with her owners. And she hadn’t forgotten them — as soon as she saw them, she greeted them with a happily wagging tail.
Sneaky Puppy
Valerie is a miniature dachshund, born sometime in 2022. She lives with her owner, Georgie Gardner and her boyfriend Josh Fishlock, in Albury, Australia.
Well, she used to. In November 2023, the couple was vacationing with Valeria on Kangaroo Island off Australia’s southern coast when the worst possible thing happened.
At the time, Valerie was about a year-and-a-half-old puppy, and you know how slippery they can get. While Gardner’s and Fishlock’s attention lapsed, Valerie somehow squeezed out of her pen at their campsite.
Before her owners could catch her, the playful puppy bounded off into the bush — and disappeared.
Gardner and Fishlock tried to find the dachshund, and kept trying for a week. But even with the help of local residents who reported some initial sightings, they couldn’t find Valerie.
Sadly, their vacation came to an end. The heartbroken couple had to leave Kangaroo Island without Valerie.
Princess on the Run
Even though they had to leave her behind, Gardner and Fishlock hoped the little dog would be alright in the bush. They did that even though they knew it was probably a fool’s hope, as Valerie wasn’t exactly an outdoor dog.
“She was an absolute little princess. … She never left my side. She was not a very outside, rough-and-tough dog,” Gardner told The Guardian.
Soon weeks turned to months, and there was no news about Valerie. At some point, Gardner and Fishlock began to accept that Valerie probably wasn’t coming home — but perhaps she could still be fine.
“We thought, instead of her surviving out in the wild, maybe someone had kind of adopted her, or she was hanging out with some other dogs and getting their food,” said Gardner.
And then the couple heard that Valerie was alive.
Poop and Corpses
The little dachshund was spotted on Kangaroo Island in March 2025. At that point, she had been lost for 16 months.
Valerie hadn’t just survived — she was thriving. She had grown a lot and had obviously put on some weight, too.
No one can likely ever know how exactly Valerie made it through her ordeal. She may have received some food from friendly people, but according to Paul McGreevy from the University of Sidney’s veterinary school, it’s unlikely she relied entirely on the kindness of strangers.
“Dogs are the greatest opportunists in the animal kingdom: that’s one of their core skills,” explained McGreevy.
McGreevy believes that part of Valerie’s secret to success is her being a mini dachshund. This breed is particularly well geared for looking and finding food on the ground.
“Hypothetically, she could eat birds, frogs and mice, but it’s more likely she was eating carrion. And, unfortunately, the reality is that dogs are opportunists and they will eat fecal material,” said McGreevy.
So, while she may have gotten a helping hand, it’s likely Valerie lived on a diet of poop, carcasses, and the occasional critter. Yummy.
Happily Back Home
Although she had been spotted, Valerie wasn’t ready to come home. If anything, her time in the wild had made the dog even slipperier than before, and she proved, according to local reports, “impossible to catch.”
In the end, it took volunteers from the Kangala Wildlife Rescue more than 1,000 hours to scour Kangaroo Island in attempts to catch Valerie. But finally, in the beginning of May 2025, they got her.
When she went missing, Valerie weighed only about nine pounds. After her time on her own, she was now 15 pounds.
Not bad for a little princess of a dog.
After some health checks, Valerie was ready to go back home. Gardner and Fishlock wondered if she would still recognize them.
Valerie sure did.
“She ran straight up to me — I just burst into tears. She was wagging her tail, making her little happy sounds and wiggling around with joy. I held her and cried and cried,” Gardner told the Associated Press.
Valerie may have some issues adapting to civilian life, however, so Gardner has hired a dog behaviorist to help her out. Due to her adventure, Gardner also said that she plans to keep feeding her a raw food diet.
But no more poop.