A MASSIVE community effort has resulted in a lost dog being reunited with her family after a seven-day search effort.

Jelly Bean the collie sped off after being hit by a passing car near the Green Dragon pub in Monmouth on Sunday 4th December, and while she was spotted numerous times in the area her disappearance worried owner Julia Gregson who feared the worst.

After the campaign to find Jelly Bean accumulated close to 1,000 followers on social media, dozens of people sent messages of hope or offered to join the search on horses, in cars and on foot. Concerned helpers offered thermoses of coffee, humane traps and even drones to locate her.

There were several sightings, including Jelly being spotted limping alongside the A40 near Raglan Castle, leading to fears that she had been injured by a car, but no one could get close to her. A scared and confused Jelly Bean was even running away from Julia.

In the cold and rain the search party continued to try and locate her, and came close at times. On Tuesday Julia saw Jelly Bean less than 10 feet away from her, but she said she tore off “as if we’d never even been introduced, let alone been devoted pals.”

At this point the frightened collie was in survival mode. After speaking to a ‘dog whisperer’, Julie explained: “Jelly was now in survival mode: couldn’t see me, couldn’t hear me, except as a dangerous threat.”

After being out all week searching for Jelly Bean, she was finally found on Sunday morning in a deserted shed near Raglan.

Searching with her sister at the crack of dawn, Julia received a text message saying that Jelly Bean had been spotted among the graves at St Peter’s Church in Bryngwyn.

After countless false alarms the search party were exhausted, but with the assistance of local dog trainer Lyn Caldicott and her two border collies Alphie and Chequers, Jelly Bean was finally found and reunited with her owners.

Julia said: “When she saw us she put her head back and made a noise I’ve never heard her make before. It sounded like collie version of the Hallelujah Chorus.

Julia added: “Lyn led us down to a nondescript shed, in the dingle. The collies flushed her out and armed with our new knowledge of how to catch a wild thing, a ‘Jelly-smelling’ coat was laid on the ground with a piece of old chorizo on it. No one looked at her, no-one called, and then my sister felt a warm nose snuffling at her hand, and then the ‘Collie Chorus’ began.

Julia has made a donation in honour of all those who helped find Jelly Bean to DogsLost, a non-profit organisation, who made Jelly Bean posters free of charge.

Julia said: “We learned a lot during the seven days she went missing: about the special hell reserved for dog owners whose animals disappear and about how many amazing and kind people live in Monmouthshire.

“Thank you to all the amazing people who helped: the game keeper, the calligrapher, the lady vicar at Bryngwyn who found us dishevelled in her porch and said the congregation would say Jelly prayers, to the people in the red car who drove for days, to tea Linda with the smelly chorizo, the old man in the woolly hat on a tractor who had lost his own collie the week before and said his heart was broken, to the dozens of people who went out on foot, the riders, to Chris the calm hand on the social media tiller. It made me feel so lucky to live in such a close community.”