Chicago’s Midway airport is so much more pleasant than O’Hare, and here’s one reason: There is a pet relief area, and you can easily find it. The airport’s web site is fairly useless (“The Animal Relief Area is curbside, on the lower level.”), but the airport itself was well-signed. Incredibly well-signed, in fact — some airports will grudgingly give you a sign or two in the baggage claim area, but Midway’s signs started on the arrivals concourse. Outstanding! I brought traffic to a halt while I took a picture:

You’re left to your own devices at some crucial points in the terminal, but once you reach the baggage claim area, the signs return in force. While you can exit any of the baggage claim area doors and find signage pointing you in the correct direction, the most efficient thing to do is locate Door 4 (near Baggage Carousel 8), exit the terminal, and turn right. Walk just past the bus stop, then turn right along the side of the building.

This is a dark picture, but it gives you an idea of where to look for the pet relief area.

What you’ll find, alas, is not that impressive. Midway’s official pet relief area is a small, fenced area. On the bright side, it has a bench, but the ground cover is large rocks and a really large concrete pad. What were they thinking? I know the answer — they were thinking “easy to clean,” but neither surface is particularly inviting to dogs.

Concrete? Really? There was one forlorn patch of pee on it, but a lot of dogs really dislike concrete.

Poop bags are provided, so if your dog prefers grass, grab a bag and take her to the grass patch beyond the pet relief area.

The official pet relief area is in the foreground of this picture. There's a useful bit of lawn across the roadway, next to the parking garage.

This post is part of an ongoing series of reviews of airport pet relief areas we’ve visited. To see others, visit Dog Jaunt’s handy guide to airport pet relief areas.