DENVER -- Feb. 23, 2008

So Friday night Marianne said we were going out to dinner with some of the other puppy rasiers. OK, no big deal, we do that all the time. My only question was "Who will be under the table with me?" Marianne said my pals Zili and Tommy would be there. Excellent.

So we drove to the restaurant which was called Islamorada Fish Company. We walked in and WHOA! There was a HUGE tank of water with lots of funny-looking silvery things in it. I jumped in surprise.

"Fish," Marianne told me. "Those are fish."

"But they don't look like the fish you showed me at PetsMart last week!" I said.

"No," she admitted, "Those were little goldfish. These are many kinds of exotic fishes from the ocean."

Huh.

As we walked to our table I was startled to see weird things hanging on the walls. I tugged on Marianne's sleeve. "You're not going to tell me those are fish, too? They're HUGE. And WEIRD! That one has a stick on its nose! Why is it hanging on the wall?!"

"Calm down!" Marianne scolded me. "Yes, those are fish too. I think that's a swordfish. It's hanging on the wall because it was specially preserved and stuffed after it was caught. See the photograph next to it? That shows the man who caught it posing next to it."

I shuddered. Humans are SO peculiar sometimes. You'll never find dogs hanging anything dead on our walls! We either roll in it, eat it or bury it. On a good day we do all three.

So Tommy and Zili and I visited under the table (quietly, of course; we're "working" after all) while the humans talked and ate. As usual, Tommy stole a napkin off someone's lap, which he thinks is hilarious. Zili was turning it into a snack until her puppy raiser caught on and made her drop it.

I should point out how selfish the puppy raisers are, never sharing any food tidbits with us. Marianne tells me that's not appropriate service dog behavior, and scolds me if I try to clean up anything I find on the floor. Seems to me that's HELPFUL behavior, but whatever. At least the nice waitress brought a bowl of ice cubes for Zili and Tommy and me to share.

After dinner we walked out of the restaurant into the adjacent store called "Outdoor World." It was enormous, but I was puzzled. "Why is it indoors if it's called Outdoor World?" I asked.

Marianne sighed. "The things they sell here are for people who have outdoor hobbies like fishing, camping, hunting, kayaking, etc. I think they even have a section for dog stuff."

Now that's more like it! Outdoor World is dog-friendly so Kealy and Perrin, two dogs who used to be CCI pups in training like me but are now "Change of Career" dogs, got to come in the store, too. They'd had a nap in their car while we were in the restaurant.

First we walked over to another fish tank where we could climb up close and watch the fish. "Hey," said Zili, "That big one has whiskers." Sure enough, a fish with whiskers swam past. "That's a catfish," said Tommy. "I think I saw it on TV." "I wonder if there's a dogfish?" said Perrin. We all looked hopefully at the tank. "Puppy, puppy, puppy," called Marianne in a squeaky voice, trying to get our attention for a photo. We sighed, turned around and posed.

Then we walked over to a very tall furry animal called a moose and posed for another photo. The moose was dead, like the fish on the walls in the restaurant. I looked around and realized the whole store was full of dead animals. Some of the animals were grouped together, and even though they weren't alive, they looked like they were running or jumping or chasing each other. There was even a racoon sitting on top of a display cabinet wearing sunglasses.

"I don't get it." I said.

Marianne said "It's called taxidermy. It's a way of preserving an animal or fish so you can display it in a museum, store, or even your home. When we go visit your Uncle Bobby next month you'll see stuffed heads of an elk, a deer and an oryx in his living room."

Uh-huh. Like I said, humans are peculiar.

We walked all around the store and posed for lots of pictures. The people shopping in the store asked the puppy raisers lots of questions, and we pups all got lots of pats and attention. We're allowed to be petted as long as we sit quietly and don't try to give anyone slurpy kisses. The people who work at Outdoor World were really nice and said we were very good dogs! We wagged our tails at everyone.

We finally left the store to head home. "Hey, "I said before I dozed off in the back seat. "We didn't get to the dog stuff!" Marianne laughed. "I guess we'll have to go back. Maybe we can have class there sometime." I like that idea!

Chow for now!

Parker

Questions or comments for Parker? Send them to Call7ForHelp@TheDenverChannel.com.

Would you like more information about Canine Companions for Independence, or perhaps be a puppy raiser? Call 1-800-572-BARK or go to www.cci.org for details.

For more information on Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World go to www.basspro.com.