JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
And now for a story about a homecoming for a tiny dog named Valerie. She's a mini dachshund who ran away during a family camping trip on a remote Australian island, and she survived on her own for 529 days. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf has the story.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Valerie, roughly 10 pounds with short, little legs and a long black body, doesn't quite look like a dog who recently survived more than 17 months in the Australian wilderness. She's sitting on the couch, bundled in a blanket, on the laps of her owners, Georgia Gardner and Josh Fishlock, as they talk over Zoom.
GEORGIA GARDNER: She is the queen of the house. It is her house, and we live in it.
LONSDORF: But for well over a year, Valerie was missing from that house after getting spooked on a camping trip in a remote area of Kangaroo Island back in 2023.
JOSH FISHLOCK: We searched and searched and searched.
GARDNER: Hiking through the hills for five days, nonstop.
LONSDORF: And eventually, the couple had to return home to mainland Australia.
FISHLOCK: The decision to leave the island was probably the hardest decision I think I've ever made in my life...
GARDNER: Yeah.
FISHLOCK: ...'Cause we went over there as three, and we were going back as two.
LONSDORF: They tried to hold out hope that someone would find her, but weeks turned into months, and still there was no word about Valerie, until this February, more than a year after she first disappeared, when a farmer on the island snapped a photo of a tiny black dog running through a field. That photo made it to Lisa Karran.
LISA KARRAN: I said, ah, that must be the little Valerie that went missing a year ago.
LONSDORF: Lisa and her husband Jared run Kangala Wildlife Rescue, a local organization generally focused more on working with wildlife than pets. They'd originally been in contact with Valerie's parents when she went missing.
KARRAN: So it sort of started from there.
LONSDORF: Lisa says that's when they got to work, trying to rescue Valerie during their off hours. It was no small feat. First, they put out about a dozen small, basic traps but caught pretty much everything except Valerie - possums, feral cats, wallabies...
KARRAN: Even some kangaroos put their big heads in there.
LONSDORF: So along with a team of other volunteers, they began experimenting, often working long nights with little to no sleep, documenting along the way.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED VOLUNTEER: So we're out in the middle of nowhere. It's 3:30 in the morning. It's freezing cold. It's, like, 5 degrees.
LONSDORF: Eventually, they rigged up a big pen with a roof, several wildlife cameras and a remote controlled door...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KARRAN: We've set up the cage with all the comforts of home for little Valerie. We've got her toys and teddies and blankets.
LONSDORF: ...Setting it in the spot where Valerie had last been seen. And finally, after nearly two months, everything lined up. Valerie entered the pen, relaxed a little bit, and they hit the remote to drop the door.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING)
LONSDORF: No one quite knows exactly how Valerie survived. Lisa speculates she was drinking water from nearby farms, burrowing for shelter and scavenging for food. After her capture, Valerie went to the vet and got a clean bill of health. She'd even gained some weight.
KARRAN: She's got the physique of, like, a little body builder (laughter).
LONSDORF: Valerie has been back home for about two weeks. Her owners say she's settled right back in, playing with her toys, cuddling in bed, going on walks. But Gardner says she's not exactly the same.
GARDNER: She's kind of come back a little bit more independent.
LONSDORF: Gardner and Fishlock say they have been flooded with messages, with many people saying Valerie's story gave them hope.
GARDNER: You know, if a tiny, little 4-kilo sausage dog can survive on Kangaroo Island in the Australian bush, then, you know, you too can survive whatever it is you're going through.
LONSDORF: But clearly, Valerie is also content bundled in a blanket, sitting on a couch, too.
Kat Lonsdorf, NPR News.
SUMMERS: And if you want to see photos of little Valerie, head on over to npr.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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