On an island south of Adelaide, a strange creature has been seen creeping through the bush. A long cylindrical body and long snout flanked by floppy ears are dead giveaways.

But this wiener dog named Valerie isn’t lost anymore. After almost 18 months of living wild on Kangaroo Island, local police are poised to get her out of there and reunite her with owners Josh Fishlock and Georgia Gardner.

In 2023, the pair were enjoying a camping holiday on the island with their miniature dachshund Valerie, who weighs no more than 8 pounds soaking wet. The pampered pooch was used to pink sweaters and toys, treats and ramps to help her get upstairs, and so the couple thought it would be safe to leave her closed in her cage with plenty of pleasures while they went fishing.

But within minutes of casting their lines, another camper told them that Valerie had escaped, run underneath a van, and then bolted into the bush when some people tried to coax her out.

“We spent the next five days searching for her through the bushland, hiking up and down big hills and camping overnight,” Georgia told the Sunday Times. They had packed only one pair of clothes each, and amid the stink, the rain, and the lack of any sign of their beloved pooch, the two reluctantly gave up and returned home to Albury.

Meanwhile, on the island inhabited by large venomous black tiger snakes and wedge-tailed eagles that prey on the native wallabies, Valerie’s fate seemed sealed.

But it seems there’s more wolf than wiener in Valerie than meets the eye, and a survival instinct evidently kicked in that has seen her make it through 500 days of wild living.

Via a local Facebook group, Georgia said they heard last month that Valerie had been seen on the island at the end of February, just over nine miles from the campsite where she had been lost.

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Georgia then contacted Jared Karran, according to the Times, who works as both a local police officer and wildlife rescuer. Karran organized an effort to locate Valerie’s territory by baiting and setting out cameras. They eventually spotted her—alive and in rude health.

One local tour operator said the most likely food source has been roadkill, and that the eagles would have been her biggest threat. Valerie is extremely canny, and Karran is reluctant to try and trap the dog. Instead, they are hoping to reactivate her domesticated instincts and coax her out into a space where she can be apprehended.

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For their part, Georgia and Josh are preparing for a 13-hour-long drive back to Kangaroo Island to retrieve her.

“We’re just waiting to see what condition she’s in and whether she’s still domesticated,” Georgia says. “It’s all pretty overwhelming. I just want to give her a big hug.”