Coco and me at the Field Museum in Chicago

Today on Valentine's Day Coco and I went to the Field Museum in Chicago. They had a free day and the weather was finally sunny and most of the snow on the roads was melted away. So I figured, I'd be able to put some gas in the car and pay for parking and have a nice walk around the museum. I called ahead to make sure we could go and the people there were very nice and said that service dogs were welcome. And of course, when we got there everyone loved Coco.

Coco paused every time we walked by one of the bronze human statues. It reminded me of her first year when she would go up to a statue and smell it and then step back from it and bark once. I'd touch the statue and tell her it's a statue, it's okay and we'd go on our way. In the museum she stayed right by my side and she didn't go up to smell any of the statues and she never let out a sound. I thought it was so interesting how she paused until I looked at it and said, "I see it. It's a satute." And then we started walking again. She does the same thing if a car is parked and the engine is on. She won't go ahead unless I tell her that I've seen it and we're safe. It was too cute. She also paused to look at the displays on the mountain lions, the bear, the deer, the buffalo and the ground birds like pheasant.

A couple of times she motioned to me to sit down. She rubbed a bench with her nose and then rubbed my leg and looked at me. At first I didn't listen but then I started feeling warm and thought maybe she was sensing I needed to take a break. So I sat for a few minutes and then we walked a little more and left. We wandered around for almost two hours. I thoroughly enjoyed being in the museum again. I felt reassured that if there were stairs or elevators or my eyes were having trouble adjusting to light, Coco would be there to help me. And she was. It is so nice to know that places I thought I'd probably never see again, we could go to together and enjoy.