Te Anau is rallying around pharmacist George Batchelor in the search for his missing dog Eliza.
The Southland community is using everything at their disposal to try and track down the much-loved spoodle – with helicopters, drones and search dogs deployed.
George told Breakfast that Eliza and Lucy, another spoodle, were chasing rabbits last Wednesday ahead of the disappearance.
"One of them came home when she was feeling like she'd had enough of a good time, and the other one has either kept going or got herself into some sort of difficulties," he said. "She's done a sort of 10-hour stint before, but this is way out of the box."
George's wife Michelle said Eliza could be anywhere.
The search area includes Lake Te Anau, George added, saying they're "lucky".
"We know she's not in there, so that halves the search area," he said. "But it's still a big area."
So the community's help has been "absolutely stunning", George told Breakfast.
"It's an amazing town to live in, we do all interconnect quite strongly.
"If you're in a troublesome situation like this, you just ask 3500 of your best mates and they come and help you out.
"We've had people coming in, grabbing flyers, putting them up all around town," he said. "Everybody's changed their patterns, they normally walk their dog over here and now they're gonna walk it over there."
And children are using shovels to dig up every rabbit hole they can find, George added.
"It's really heartwarming, it's amazing."
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