Pipsqueak the Dachshund Reunited With Her Family After a 5-month Separation Due to Coronavirus

A little dog went on a very long journey due to the coronavirus pandemic, but is thankfully home with her family again.

According to Lonely Planet, Pipsqueak the dachshund was adopted by an Australian family, the Eilbecks (Zoe, Guy, Cam, and Max), while they were in Sicily. For the first few months, Pipsqueak lived on a sailboat with her family as they toured around the world, traveling to 17 countries.

Unfortunately, the Eilbecks were in Florida when the coronavirus pandemic began to spread worldwide, and the family had to scramble to get back to Australia before the borders closed, Daily Mail reported. This sadly meant that Pipsqueak could not make the journey home with them, since arranging for the dog’s travel would have been complicated and time-consuming. Instead, Pipsqueak was temporarily given to a dog-lover named Ellen Steinberg in North Carolina until the Eilbecks could arrange for her to come home.

Pipsqueak stayed with Steinberg for three months while the family searched for someone on social media in the U.S. who could fly the dog to Los Angeles — the first leg of her journey home — Lonely Planet reported. Once Pipsqueak secured her trip to Los Angeles, she then flew to Auckland, New Zealand, then finally to Melbourne, Australia.

As if Pipsqueak hadn’t had enough problems getting back to her humans, border closures between Victoria and New South Wales went into effect while the dog was in a 10-day quarantine upon arriving in Australia, according to Daily Mail. Thanks to a nearby relative who was able to house the pup and local media attention, Pipsqueak’s story caught the attention of Virgin Australia airlines, who arranged to bring Pipsqueak on a flight to Sydney.

“During these difficult times, it's nice to be able to put a smile on someone's face and I know it was a real joy for our team to come to the rescue,” Glen Moloney, Virgin Australia group general manager of cargo, told Daily Mail. Pipsqueak's family seemed very relieved and happy to have her home. The family posted pictures of the happy pup asleep in her new bed at their home on Scotland Island.

“Our greatest learning has also been the most joyous — the kindness of strangers is alive and well in the world today. We could not have got our puppy here without many, many people's help and everyone did it because they loved dogs and wanted to help us get our smallest crew member home to her family,” Zoe Eilbeck told Lonely Planet.

According to Daily Mail, Pipsqueak’s journey took 136 days. The family has put their yacht up for sale, but hopes to take another journey around the world after the pandemic is over.

Anyone can follow Pipsqueak’s journey on the family’s account on Instagram.