(FALCON, Colo.) — A beloved mascot and local celebrity was killed by two off-leash dogs in a neighborhood in Falcon.

A little white goat, known to Dorian and Josephine Perez as Bessie, was given to them almost nine years ago.

“She was funny. You know, my husband would come home and [say], ‘Bessie, where’s Daddy’s baby?’ And then she’d start, you know, making her noise, calling out to him,” Josephine remembered.

To the rest of the neighborhood, she was known as their mascot — their greeting committee as they drove down Meridian Road, which is one of the main thoroughfares that cuts through Falcon.

“We have a little community Facebook page, and everyone would post pictures of her that they saw Bessie today,” said Katie Peteson, who lives near the Perez family.

But on Oct. 6, a day came that the Perez family least expected.

“I kept hearing a dog,” Josephine recalled from that morning. “I says, ‘Did you put Bessie out this morning?'”

To which Dorian replied that she hadn’t. So the two of them ran outside to take a look. There, they saw two dogs attacking Bessie. Dorian acted immediately and grabbed a shovel.

“The pit bull went toward her, you know, and she swung the the shovel and he jumped back. And he was pretty insistent,” Josephine said.

Once they chased the dogs away, they rushed Bessie to the vet. But by then it was already too late.

“We took her in and they said that she probably wouldn’t make it, so they euthanized her,” Josephine said.

Once the news got around through the community on Facebook, neighbors began showing up to the Perez home with flowers, gifts and cards for the goat that touched a community.

“Someone posted it on Facebook, and I was devastated. I read it after I got home from work and there was so many comments of so many people that were devastated,” Peterson said.

Now, there is a memorial growing outside the home, around the Igloo house where Bessie used to take shelter in.

Meanwhile, neighbors and Bessie’s owners are calling for the dogs who did this to be removed for everyone’s safety.

“I now walk with bear mace and a knife, and I have a gun… and I never used to walk my dogs with a gun, but now I do,” Peterson said.

FOX21 reached out to the owners of the dogs who allegedly killed the goat, and they declined to comment. We also reached out to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, which said this is an active case and they are unable to comment at this time.

For now, the Perez family is hoping Bessie’s legacy can shine on.

“Three times, she lived to lift her head, and she looked at me and she let out a cry and then she dropped her head again…” Joesphine said. “And… we were just telling her goodbye.”