When six-year-old collie Jellybean went missing in the Monmouthshire countryside after her first ‘sleepover’ over a week ago local people were mobilised to track her down and return her to her distressed owner.

A search party last weekend, mainly in the Raglan area, involved scores of walkers and horse riders - with ‘missing dog’ posters pinned up everywhere and countless people following the search efforts on Facebook.

Jellybean, who comes from Whitebrook but was eventually found miles away at Bryngwyn, now has nearly a thousand social media followers all over the world and has been immortalised in cup cakes created in her honour at a Monmouth bakery.

Her owner Julia Gregson, a well-known writer married to film maker Richard Gregson, told the Chronicle that Jellybean was staying overnight with friends in Monmouth while they made a brief trip to Oxfordshire.

“She’d never stayed away from home before and I think she must have panicked. She never wanders - she’s usually about six inches from my knee,” said Julia.

”When I got the email saying she had disappeared I was numb with fear that I’d never see her again.”

It emerged that Jellybean had sped off on the Sunday, after being whacked by a passing car near the Green Dragon pub in Monmouth.

“Kind friends joined in the first few days of frantic search of barns, haystacks and hedgerows but the big turning point came when the Monmouth New Business web pages posted a message,” said Julia.

“Before long we had dozens of people sending messages of hope, or joining us, on horses, in cars and on foot. They offered, thermoses of coffee, humane traps, even drones!

“We had reports of sightings all over the place - Monmouth, Rockfield, The Hendre, Raglan, Llanarth. She’d been spotted limping near the A40 dual carriageway on a dark rainy night, behind Raglan Castle, in a shed near Gwehelog, hanging around the Countrywide stores - but as soon as anyone approached her she ran off.

“I don’t think there was a shed I hadn’t searched or a grass verge I hadn’t trodden.

“She seemed to be working in collie circles. She was adrenalised - locked into survival mode.”

Jellybean was eventually tracked down by dog trainer Lyn Caldicott from Llanellen, accompanied by her own collies Alphie and Chequers.

“She’d been seen in the Raglan area on Friday and around Bryngwyn church on Saturday and Sunday. I knew there was an overgrown gully nearby and had a feeling that’s where a dog would hide.

“When my collies showed particular interest in some undergrowth and would not leave it, I contacted Julia’s sister Caroline, who came to the location.”

Lyn, who specialises in training scent work, told Caroline to drop her coat, to allow Jellybean to use her nose to identify her, then to move away to avoid startling the dog and having her run away again.

“Dogs ‘see’ with their noses, and Jellybean was able to catch the scent from the coat and realise it belonged to a member of her family. This gave her the confidence and trust to approach ‘her’ person and allow herself to be caught,” said Lyn.

Jellybean’s owner Julia posted on Facebook that night, “I’ve never heard a dog ‘carol’ with joy at being found before, but Jelly did. It sounded like a collie version of the Hallelujah Chorus! It feels like a miracle having her home and sleeping by the fire.”

She later wrote, “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.

“I can’t thank people enough for helping to find her…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’, the people in the red car who drove for days, 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!

“Getting her back has made my Christmas! She’s absolutely fine - right by my side as always.”