A young English girl who lost a stuffed dog at the Eaton Centre while visiting Toronto has received a massive response online to help her find the beloved toy.

Mom Julie Letton and her family were getting ready to head home to England Aug. 5 after a trip to Toronto last week when they realized that her daughter Phoebe’s toy, nicknamed Sleepy dog, was missing.

“We were killing time before catching the taxi back to Pearson International for our flight home,” Letton told CP24 via Skype Tuesday. “We wasted a couple of hours in the mall, which is easily done, then decided to take ourselves off to the Cineplex at Yonge and Dundas. Then we realized when we were there that sleepy dog was missing.

“So we turned around as soon as the movie was finished, rushed back into the mall and tried to retrace our steps, but no joy.”

Phoebe has had the stuffed toy since she was one or two years old and uses it to help her go to sleep at night.

As a last-ditch effort, Letton took to Facebook while the family was in a cab to Pearson and posted a picture of Phoebe and Sleepy dog with a message asking for help to find the toy.

“Such a long shot but here begins the quest to bring him home. We're in a taxi heading to Pearson International... Please cast the net wide lovely people,” Letton said in her post.

Within days the post went viral and has since garnered more than 14,000 shares.

“It’s gone pretty mad actually,” Letton said. “We’ve even set up a separate Facebook page to try and deal with all the messages that are coming in.”

The post even got a boost from Toronto Police Sgt. Wendy Drummond, who retweeted it.

“With all of our great followers in the service, I put it out there and retweeted it. So hopefully we can find it and make this girl happy,” Drummond said. “We don’t know if it’s been thrown away or not but we’re appealing to people’s good nature to keep their eyes open.”

While many people have reached out to see if the toy dog has been found, there have been no solid leads so far.

Letton said the family has received an outpouring of messages from helpful people who have taken an interest and they haven’t given up yet.

“We’re really hopeful that he gets handed in,” she said.

In the meantime Phoebe says she has found an interim measure while the search for sleepy dog continues.

“Last night I slept with another toy that was a rabbit, but it helped me go to sleep as well,” she said.