After 529 days on the lam, Valerie the miniature dachshund has lastly been rescued.
Valerie, a tiny wiener canine with a pink collar, first went lacking in November 2023 after she escaped from her pen on a seaside on Kangaroo Island in South Australia and ran off into the bush within the surrounding Stokes Bay.
Her house owners, with the assistance of locals and workers at Kangala Wildlife Rescue, spent the following 5 days trying to find their furry buddy earlier than giving up and going dwelling to New South Wales.
And whereas misplaced canines usually seize hearts, Valerie captured international attention because the world watched and waited, following alongside intently after a number of sightings have been reported in latest months.
“Valerie has been safely rescued and is match and properly,” Kangala Wildlife Rescue announced on its Facebook group on Friday evening, sharing {that a} well-worn T-shirt that after belonged to Valerie’s proprietor was key to her rescue.
“We have been in a position to rip little strips off of it, and we began the method of simply including increasingly bits in the direction of the lure website as we went alongside,” Lisa Karran, one in every of Kangala’s administrators, mentioned in a video shared on the social media platform, explaining that the ultimate rescue got here when Valerie’s curiosity got the better of her and he or she took an interest within the cage, which was outfitted with toys, a mattress, hidden meals and extra clothes from her house owners.
Finally, Karran defined, the tiny canine started getting into the cage and, at one level, whereas she sniffed round for the hidden meals, they have been in a position to remotely set off the cage’s door closed.
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Figuring out the canine would doubtless be nervous and shy after her time working free, Karran mentioned she placed on the now “tatty” shirt and commenced to strategy the canine, making a sluggish introduction.
“She got here up, would sniff us and we’d simply go by her cues till she was utterly calm and snuggled up in our laps. It was wonderful,” Karran mentioned.
Late final month, Valerie made world headlines when she was spotted on surveillance cameras by Kangala Wildlife Rescue nonetheless donning her pink collar and alive, greater than 500 days after she disappeared.
Valerie along with her house owners, Josh and Georgia, earlier than she went lacking in November 2023.
Kangala Wildlife Rescue / Fb
“Nobody thought just a little Dachshund like Valerie would survive alone within the wild, however greater than 12 months after she went lacking, common studies began coming in a couple of Dachshund with a pink collar being seen about 15 kilometres from Stokes Bay,” the animal rescue company mentioned in a Fb put up on March 21.
On March 27, a Kangala Rescue workers member reported a sighting, saying it enabled the crew to slim down the search space, including that they may now feed Valerie and have put in cameras to trace her actions.
“She’s trying actually wholesome,” the workers member confirmed in a separate Facebook video.
Since her rescue, Valerie’s care crew has been working to construct up the canine’s belief and energy.
“After all, we had her favourites,” Karran mentioned of the meals first delivered to Valerie. “Roast rooster and her favorite pet food as properly — they have been the primary issues to assist her acknowledge that we have been protected and that we weren’t a menace.”
She’s additionally carrying a particular “escape-proof” harness to make sure she doesn’t handle to run away once more.
Valerie will quickly be reunited along with her “over the moon” house owners, the crew at Kangala mentioned, however first there might be a brief interval of decompression and rest for the small canine.
“We wish to return her to her stunning house owners the easiest way doable, and never trigger her any extra trauma or stress. As a result of undoubtedly on the market in 16 months she would have gone by way of lots.”
— With information from World Information’ Rachel Goodman
© 2025 World Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
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