SAN FRANCISCO -- Authorities were asking residents who live near the San Francisco Airport to be on the lookout Friday for a tan dog with a white spot near her mouth after a search by Continental Airlines personnel and animal control officials failed to locate the family pet that bolted away from handlers after arriving on a flight from Texas.

Anna Mallea hurried to the airport on Thursday to pick up the family pet -- Sassy – after it had arrived on a flight from Texas. But when she got to the Continental Airlines pick-up office she was shocked by what she found.

“When I presented by airway bill to claim my pet, I was told my dog had gone missing – disappeared – was nowhere to be found,” Anna Mallea told KTVU.

According to airline officials, a worker thought the dog didn’t look well after arriving in the cargo area where temperatures were soaring into the 90s as part of the heat wave that has blanketed the Bay Area.

He opened her cage to give her water and the dog bolted from the cage and ran out the door.

Sassy apparently crossed the busy Highway 101 freeway next to the airport safely and headed into the nearby fields.

“It’s a completely different environment for her,” a worried Anna Mallea said. “She's not familiar with a large city. She's coming from a small town so I'm very worried about her well being.”

Anna and her daughter Nicole joined airline personnel and animal control officials searching the fields on Thursday. But there was no trace of Sassy.

With temperatures forecasted to be soaring into the 90s again Friday, the family was very worried about the dog.

“We have the highest hopes of finding her,” Nicole Mallea said. “We are hoping to find her.”

Anyone who believes they see the dog is asked to call the Peninsula Humane Society or the San Bruno Police.