A Sartell family is asking for the public’s help in locating a dog that bit a 9-year-old girl in the parking lot of Como Park Zoo on Sunday.

Finding the dog — and getting its shot records — would help doctors determine if the girl, Alyssa Knutson, needs painful rabies vaccinations.

Alyssa and some friends were leaving the Zoo around 5 p.m. Sunday after celebrating a birthday. The girls were in costume. Alyssa was dressed as a cat.

In the parking lot, the group noticed a family with a small dog and asked to pet it. After getting permission, the first girl petted the dog without incident. When Alyssa petted the dog, it nipped at her, leaving a single puncture wound on her left hand, her father, Pete Knutson, said.

The dog’s owner told the adults in the group that the dog’s shots were up to date, but they didn’t exchange phone numbers.

“The owner was real nice about it. But [they] just didn’t get contact information,” Pete Knutson said.

The dog’s owner is described as white, in his mid-30s, clean-shaven, with a medium build and brown hair. The man, his wife and a child in a stroller left the parking lot in a blue-gray minivan.

The dog is described as black and brown in color, very small, with short hair and pointy ears, possibly a Chihuahua or a Toy Pinscher.

Alyssa is “doing fine,” her father said. She is now on antibiotics.

“She’s an animal lover,” Pete Knutson said. “We have two dogs at home.”

The family has 10 days to find the owner of the dog and get a copy of the dog’s shot records. If the dog can’t be found, Alyssa will begin the first in a series of rabies vaccinations on Oct. 1.

Anyone with information is asked to call 1-320-267-1598.