TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The search for a missing dog in South Tampa is captivating people on social media and driving them to help.

Rachel Lewis says she had just purchased a small gray Shih Tzu from a breeder, brought her home and the dog pulled an escape act.

“I just took her outside, she had her little harness on, her little pink thing and I thought I had it on tight enough, but I took her out in the front yard and for some reason she wiggled out of it and took off,” said Lewis.

She says she only had the dog for about four hours before she ran away.

“She looks like a little shaggy dog and her name is Wendy and they say don’t chase her because that won’t do any good, but she’s been on the loose now for six days,” said Lewis.

She lives just off of Gandy Boulevard in Tampa and says the dog ran to a large open field that was once the Georgetown Apartments. The land was cleared for new construction some time ago, but is mostly just a large, vacant piece of property now. Several people have seen the little dog in the area over the last six days.

” I happened to look over there and I saw a dog barking and it was going on for like two hours,” said Kenneth Thomas, who lives in the area and says he saw Wendy on a sandbar on the water and soon found out Lewis was looking for her.

“I seen her and she said I’m looking for my dog and I said, well I’m looking at that dog through my binoculars right now,” said Thomas. Unfortunately they could not get to the dog.

After Lewis posted about her lost dog on social media, a number of people have joined the search.

“Well I saw Rachel Lewis, the owner of the dog, post on Nextdoor, and I wish I’d shared it sooner on my own social media because I know a lot of people,” said Marcy Perez. “So, I shared it and so a couple of my friends found someone with a boat this morning, they went to the area and they looked all over and they couldn’t see it, they couldn’t find it.”

Late Monday, Lewis and a friend believe they spotted the dog in a new location, not far from the place she was last seen. Once again, they could not reach her, but the search goes on.

“We’re not going to give up on this, we’re going to get that dog,” said Thomas.