In Search of Zip

How a trail running community and a local pet recovery nonprofit came together to find Zip, a dog who spent 69 days lost on the Austin greenbelt.

By Amy Willis

Photo courtesy of TRAPRS

It was a balmy Saturday morning on June 22nd, Austin was just starting to heat up for the summer. Mike Rose, an avid early morning trail runner, laced up his shoes for a 5:30 am group run on the greenbelt with local trail running group, Trail Roots, like he’s done a million times before. He grabbed his best running buddy, his dog Zip, a two-and-a-half-year-old white rescue, and headed out the door. Small but mighty, Zip can run for hours on the trail, and has been running with his dad for over a year. The Saturday routine built a bond, Zip always ran just ahead of Mike, never leaving his side. Mike often let him run freely, off leash, allowing the pup to lead his footsteps. They headed off onto the trail from the 360 trailhead into the twisted, overgrown maze of the greenbelt that spans more than 12 miles through Austin.

On this fateful Saturday morning trail run, Zip got spooked by a mountain biker and took off down the trail into the darkness. Not panicking at first, Mike remained calm and continued to chase after him, with only a dim headlamp to light the way. Soon, the sun came up, and more Trail Roots runners were on the trail. Mike alerted the other runners that Zip had run off and to keep an eye out for him. 

“It was immediate — and I mean within almost minutes — I was overwhelmed by people’s willingness to drop what they were doing and help find Zip. When I posted on Slack around 9 am or so that Zip had taken off, there were already a bunch of people re-routing their runs to go back and run through the Twin Falls and Travis Country area. Then, a number of people came out later in the morning and even on that very hot afternoon to look for Zip,” said Mike.

Surely, with all of these runners on the trail, someone would see him. But hours ticked by and there was still no sign of him. The sunrise brought on the heat and by the mid afternoon, with runners running 15 or more miles on the trail, no one had seen him, Zip was lost. 

Mike got into action and devised a plan. Trail Roots runners took shifts, from the predawn morning through the late night hours, running the same trail Mike had last seen Zip on. There was one spotting at the 360 trailhead late Saturday night by member Travis Johnson, who said he saw Zip running across 360 and then lost sight of him. 

“Probably the biggest consequence was Travis, who went out for a night trail run around 9 pm from the 360 Trailhead and actually saw Zip! That sighting in particular gave me hope, the whole time of that 69 days,” said Mike.

Mike sat in his truck in the parking lot all night, finding it impossible to sleep or go home while his best friend was lost in the dark. He would not give up. 

Photo courtesy of TRAPRS

He then got a hold of TRAPRS, a local non profit volunteer group in Austin that humanely traps, rescues, and provides strategic consulting to lost or stray pet cases. TRAPRS team members came out and searched, assessed the satellite view map of the area and would regularly set up and move gear during the case. They put out some of Mike’s clothing, in hopes that Zip would smell his owner and enter the trap. If Zip was spotted, it was important not to call his name, chase him, or even approach, but to call them to report a sighting. They also set up motion detecting cameras at all the trailheads and monitored them 24/7 and put out sturdy, large lost dog signs.

Caitlin Chapman, director and co-founder of TRAPRS states, “You can’t have enough awareness. Ever. The idea is that nearly everyone in the area your pet went missing needs to know there’s a pet missing nearby. Don’t be shy about flyering, talking to everyone you can, and posting everywhere. All it takes is one clue sometimes.”

There was hope, eventually Zip would show up. The weekend turned into a week. Trail Roots runners were still showing up, handing out flyers, calling shelters, scanning facebook groups, ringing doorbells, and of course, running the trail in search of Zip. Hundreds of miles were logged and spreadsheets were made to organize places to put out water on the trail as the creeks had started to dry up. 

“Special shout-out to Kelly and Sally, especially Sally who posted on Facebook in all the right places to raise the awareness of Zip's case. And that next weekend, so many people offered to go out on the next Saturday run and hand out flyers, post signs and look first-hand for Zip — that I was able to make a spreadsheet with about 30+ runners starting at different Greenbelt trailheads and running different routes and everything. For weeks afterwards, Trail Root-ers helped refill water bowls (big shout-out to Nick Cosmas and Emma) to keep Zip alive and my spirits up,” said Rose.

Mike would eventually have to break the news to his family and young daughter telling them that Zip was “on an adventure”.

Soon, weeks started to roll on, and he had not been spotted or found. The #SearchforZip Slack channel went cold. A few people were still running the trails and parking at the trailheads, but as weeks turned to months and summer was in full swing, life started to move on and hopes started to dwindle. Thankfully Mike and TRAPRS still held out hope.

Then, 69 days after Zip went missing, Mike got a call from the nonprofit. They thought they found him. A good samaritan reported a small white dog in the area and Zip went into one of the traps that they had set up and captured him. 

Photo courtesy of TRAPRS

A video released by TRAPRS Instagram shows how it all went down. Get your kleenexes! When Mike saw Zip for the first time, tears melted down his face in relief. He knew it was his dog and the two had finally been reunited. 

“I couldn’t believe it. Seriously, even when TRAPRS told me that they had him—there had been so many false alarms and dead-end sightings, that I refused to let myself believe it was really going to be him. But once I peaked around the corner, and I saw him looking at me all cock-eyed with one ear up, and one ear down—I knew it was him,” said Mike.

Zip lost 40% of his body weight and is still recovering from his ordeal. The TRAPRS team never gave up on little Zip and without them, he may have never been found. 

“We typically say unless there’s a body or a definitive reason to believe a dog is deceased, we never fully give up hope,” said Caitlin when asked if there’s a time period when they stop searching.

Mike, his family, and all of Trail Roots have been crying happy tears that this story had a happy ending. We know that this is not always the case for other lost dogs. 

“We have a high success rate and estimate our current lost pet recovery rate is around 90-95%. It’s important to note that that's the recovery rate so that does include some closure in other ways, but most are happy endings,” said Chapman.

Thankfully, this nonprofit exists to help people not feel alone and provides hope that their beloved pets will return home once again. To support their work, consider donating.

“Oh my gosh, what an organization. This is an all-volunteer group of absolutely dedicated animal lovers that donate time, effort, supplies and more to the recovery of lost pets. Caitlin and Julia are so dedicated and caring. TRAPRS has an amazing team of folks with high-tech techniques (IR-sensing drones!) and boots-on-the-ground volunteers to help find all manner of lost, stray, neglected and dumped dogs all around Austin. They gave me all sorts of advice, tips, and encouragement over those two months, that really kept me going. All I can say is just Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, THANK YOU to TRAPRS,” exclaimed Mike.

It was incredible to see the Trail Roots community come together to help search for Zip. Running is the tie that binds us, but deep connections are made on the trail and lifelong friendships are forged. We show up for one another and try to be there in each others’ darkest moments, with a headlamp on and ready to go.

“I just couldn’t believe it. I was so grateful and humbled by everyone’s efforts, kindness, compassion and pro-activity. You know, it’s funny—I realized that in Trial Roots we spend a lot of time with each other during early mornings, late afternoons, weekdays, and weekends—huffing-and-puffing and talking about running and life and funny things and also serious things. And in this process—what I realize now—is that it makes real, genuine friendships that can be, albeit, a bit different than other friendships, very real, meaningful and consequential. I learned that so many real friends showed up for me, my family and Zip. Just wow,” said Mike.