Koko gives Fred Rogers a gorilla hug!

On Tuesday, July 28, 1998, Mister Rogers visited with Koko at her home at The Gorilla Foundation.

When Mister Rogers offered his famous invitation, "Won't you be my neighbor?" to Koko, she replied, "Love you, visitor, Koko love!" Koko spent well over an hour gently leading Mister Rogers around her room, hugging and grooming him, and inviting him to play "chase."

Mister Rogers said, "Once you get to know people (or our close primate relatives, gorillas), you find that there is much more to them than what you see when you look at their 'outsides.' It's the heart and not just the eyes that discover what's real about us."