Our children love puppies. We have two small, white fluffy balls of love at home named Sophia and Garibaldi. The children miss them terribly when we travel. We take them to a “doggy hotel” whenever we leave town. I think our children secretly wish they could come with us when we travel.

Outside of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao stands this 43 foot tall puppy with flowers in all colors of the rainbow sprouting out all over it. It turns out the children of Bilbao loved this puppy, and didn’t want the puppy to leave them. This sculpture by Jeff Koons was supposed to be a temporary exhibit installed for the opening of the Guggenheim in 1997. I don’t know how long it was supposed to remain, but it was saved from demolition by the schoolchildren of Bilbao. They mounted a letter-writing campaign to keep the giant flower-sprouting puppy at the Guggenheim. I’m glad. It stands as an example of the voices of children being heard and positively affecting the world around them. This is a story I share with my children so they can have an example of the power they can wield. And I find joy in the commonalities we share all around the world. In this case, the love of puppies.