I lived with a dachshund for sixteen years. Her name was Bonnie because she was born in the Victorian town of Bonnie Doon. Bonnie, and if you’ve ever loved a dachshund – really loved one – you’ll understand why, when I heard about Valerie, the miniature dachshund who spent 529 days on the run in the wilds of Kangaroo Island, I immediately thought: Of course she did.
Only a dachshund could.
Only a dachshund would.
Valerie slipped away in November 2023, during what was supposed to be a relaxing holiday for her humans at Stokes Bay, one of those beaches so staggeringly beautiful it looks fake. She escaped from her campsite, darted into the thick Australian scrub, and simply disappeared. No dog, especially not a tiny, sausage-shaped one with ears like radar dishes, was supposed to survive out there – not with the snakes, the eagles, the wildfires, the sheer vastness of it all.
But if you know dachshunds, you know better.
Dachshunds are loving, fiercely loyal dogs. But they are also, frankly, stubborn as hell. Training one to do something they don’t want to do is less like training a dog and more like negotiating with a tiny, long-bodied monarch.
So when Valerie kept slipping through traps, evading cameras, and ghosting would-be rescuers for more than a year, it didn’t feel surprising. It felt inevitable.
I followed every update. A blurry photo here: those unmistakable oversized ears sticking out of golden paddock grass. A security video there: a quick glimpse of her pink collar as she darted through the scrub. Volunteers logged over 5,000 kilometres searching for her. Conservationists spent 1,000 hours laying traps, setting cameras, and studying her movements like she was some kind of canine criminal mastermind.
Meanwhile, Valerie just kept living. Wild, free, and on her own terms.
Maybe that’s why her good news story captured so many hearts around the world. Let’s face it: we really needed a win right now. And Valerie, with her impossible survival and stubborn determination, delivered it. It wasn’t just about a missing dog. It was about the tiny, stubborn little dog that just kept on going, despite the odds.
Finally, this week, after months of work by Kangala Wildlife Rescue, they caught her. And she was – miraculously – healthy, whole, and still wearing her pink collar, as if to say, What took you so long?
Welcome home, Valerie. The world – and my dachshund-obsessed heart – missed you.
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