Milly's Search, Trap and Reunite

10/07/2026

What a week Mark and Jo have had 🩷

With not one but two huge cases we have been working on.

Firstly Zephyr and escaped rescue from Monika’s rescue in Ingleside.

We received a call on Thursday 2-7 from Monika’s to ask for our help and assistance in bringing Zephyr in safely. We set up a plan with the kennel manager, Luis as well as a Northern Beaches chat group, Paw Patrol. We have worked with this group over the last few years helping to bring many dogs in.

Together we all came up with a plan of attack for Zephyr. Since there had not been a sighting since she escaped on the Wednesday this included flooding the area with posters, leaflet drops and social media to get the word out.

Friday she was spotted on Ln Cove Rd standing at the edge of the bush along the side of the road. At least now we had a starting point of where she might be. A camera was deployed in the bush and the next day we conducted a drone search of the area. Unfortunately the drone search came up empty.

The next she was sighted by Jo Jenkins not far from the camera. Around 12 on Sunday we had success with her in front of the camera. She then came back later that night as well.

On Monday the weather turned and the rain came down. Despite this we decided we still needed to deploy our trap and that night it was set.

Then we waited, but the only thing we caught that night (at 3am) was a local Border Collie that must have followed the trail of food and liquid smoke from the road in to the trap. And it must have been good as we caught the same dog the next night at 2am. Yes the dog was owned and we did talk to the owner.

On Wed a call came through to report sightings near the Bahai Temple. She had moved from where we had the trap. We felt she was trying to get back to the safety of the kennels and people she knew.

Thursday afternoon she had crossed the very busy Mona Vale Rd. A road we were all anxious about her crossing.

She was sighted at the back of a property on Powderworks Rd. Food was thrown around where she was sighted and an hour later she was seen by the property owner coming back and eating the food. It was decided to move the trap to this new location.

As Luis was there setting the trap up, he sighted Zephyr. He moved fast and left the area so as not to disturb her.

And again we waited.

Our only visitor this time was a cute little bandicoot.

With fresh food thrown around this morning (Fri 10 July) by one of the kennel hands, the hope was to entice her towards the trap.

Success!!

At 10:37 there was excited chatter from the team. She was back in front of the camera. With fingers crossed and no one daring to breath, our hard work was rewarded when the door of the trap closed behind her at 10:42am. Yay!

Zephyr was then transported to a vet for a check up.

We would love to give our sincere thanks to Monika's Doggie Rescue for their trust in us to help bring this girl in. A special thanks to Luis and Tayla for all the hard work and long hours the put in to the search.

And big thank you to Jo Jenkins for the countless hours and the amazing work you did including posters/leaflets and being there at 3:30am and 2am.

Thanks to Amanda for helping to get the posters and leaflets out.

To everyone in Paw Patrol, you know who you are, thank you for all you do to bring northern beaches dogs in safe. You are all incredible people.

Thank you to everyone who was looking out for Zephyr and reported sightings. This was 100% a community effort.

-The Milly’s Team

06/03/2026

Hi everyone,

First of all we would like to thank all of you for your support and generosity. We are Milly's Search, Trap and Rescue Inc. Our founding members were brought together while assisting in the search for 2 dogs.

Milly (a.k.a. Angelina) was a rescued Beagle who escaped her first time foster carer at Mt Elliott in 2019. For 3 weeks we assisted in the search ending tragically when Milly was found some 10km away on the M1.

The other case many of you may know is Bu Bu. This rescue Jack Russell had us on the run for 5 months turning up on both sides of Wyong Rd and in Mingara Athletics track. Unfortunately, tragedy struck again in April 2020 when Bu Bu's luck ran out crossing Wyong Rd. It was during this time we met Lyn and Dakota who gave us the support and courage to build Australia's first Missy Trap.

It is for these two beautiful rescues our group banded together and formed a specialised search and trap group dedicated to the search, trap and rescue of lost animals.

The first use of our Missy Trap was for Lilly in August 2020 and this is where we met Tracey. Tracey trusted us and our trap to assist in the safe capture of this frightened Silky Terrier.

Since that day we have helped dogs from Cranebrook to Lismore.

We officially received our NFP Registration as an Incorporated Association on the 15th January, 2021.

Now, with pleasure, Mark and I would like to introduce the people behind Milly's:

President: Mark McDougall.

Vice President and Fundraising Co-ordinator: Tracey Fitzsimmons

Secretary: Jo-anne Wright
Treasurer: Mark McDougall

Again, thank you for your support and encouragement. You have all made our group what it is today.

Mark our president - Mark is currently our only male team member, who has to put up with all these women with complex and very different personalities, good luck Mark. Mark is a nice and patient guy who quietly goes about getting things done.

Tracey our Vice President and Fundraising Co-ordinator - Tracey , hmmm, well what can we say. A fighter, a dog whisperer, with a big smile, laugh and heart. Don’t let the smile or laugh lull you into believing she is a push over. She is the team bodyguard, the one we push first through the scary gates and darkness.

Jo our Secretary - Jo is our oldest team member. But don’t let that fool you. She runs rings around us younger folk. Tenacious and doggedly determined. A little dirt and some leeches doesn’t deter her. Ok maybe the leeches do a little.

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