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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- A couple in Colorado Springs is looking for answers and warning others after finding their dog shot to death just outside their backyard.

George and Diana DeBoer said their 4-year-old chihuahua Chico was shot Saturday morning behind their home on Purcell Drive in the Stetson Hills neighborhood.

"I looked over the fence, and I found him lying about 20 feet, 15 feet, outside the fence, and he had been shot," George said.

The DeBoers said Chico never went outside the fence in the four years they had him and wasn't the type of dog to make enemies.

"He never met a stranger. He was a friend to everybody," Diana said.

George thinks someone lured Chico out of the backyard and then shot him at close range with a pellet gun or a .22 caliber pistol.

"Why? Why a seven or eight pound dog? He had a blue collar on so he wasn't a stray dog, so why?" George asked.

Diana said that's also the question she wants answered.

"I think it would help us move on," she said.

The DeBoers said they were given Chico when they were facing severe health problems, and Chico helped them through it.

"That dog was given to us when we were going through cancer, so that dog means a lot more to us than just a dog," George said. "I didn't leave the house for six weeks until we got the dog. The dog has to be walked, that got me out of the house."

"He was just our life," Diana said.

The DeBoers said they are also worried about other dogs and kids in the neighborhood.

"We got, shall I say, young people running around with guns of some sort and somebody could get hurt seriously," George said. "There's a lot of people that walk their dogs and their kids on those paths out there and so now we've got a problem."

The DeBoers are offering a $1,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest.

Call Officer Jeff Rigney at (719) 473-1741 ext. 8712 or email jdighc@msn.com.