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Yoshi and I had a good thing in our old neighborhood.
 

Our daily walks would easily turn from 20 minutes to sometimes 30 or 40, depending on who we ran into along the way.
 

Neighbors would pause from their leaf raking to walk to the end of their front lawns and give Yoshi a pet – and oftentimes treats. Then us adults would catch each other up on our lives maybe exchange some occasional neighborhood gossip.
 

One of Yoshi’s favorite stops on our route was Mike and Margaret’s house.
 

The last year we lived in our neighborhood, Mike started the tradition of giving Yoshi a dog biscuit per visit. Once we hit the driveway, I’d let Yoshi off his leash and he’d run to their side door, waiting for Mike to come out with his treat. It got to the point where Yoshi would pull me in the direction of their house and whimper if Mike wasn’t home.
 

The added bonus though was their dog Midnight, a beautiful black Newfoundland with a wonderful disposition. She’s one of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever met, and one of the few dogs that Yoshi actually got along with.
 

Midnight would go nuts when she’d see us. She’d stand on her hind legs and place her paws on my thighs and lick my face. She’d nuzzle Yoshi for as long as he’d allow her. Those daily visits became the highlight of my mornings.
 

When I moved back to Greensboro, I worried we wouldn’t have that same friendly, neighborhood feel like I had in Jamestown. The first few weeks I walked Yoshi in my new neighborhood, I never even saw another dog, let alone any other humans out walking. It made me homesick and made me realize just how much of a good thing we had. It made me sad to think I might not have that again.
 

But months went by and like most things, I just needed to give it time. We’re meeting people all the time now on our walks. Yoshi has made friendly introductions with a few doggie friends – we just make sure not to share this information with Midnight when we see her (she’s the jealous type).
 

And then, just last week, the unexpected happened.
 

There’s a woman who lives one street over from me, who I occasionally see on our morning walk. Over time, we graduated from waving hello to most recently a wave, a smile and a “good morning.”
 

Last week, she saw Yoshi and I coming up the sidewalk, and she paused in her driveway, smiling and waiting for us. We finally made our introductions, and when I told her Yoshi’s name and mine, she lit up.
 

“You’re Carla? Carla from the paper? And this is Yoshi?!”
 

Turns out she already knew us.
 

She’s been reading about Yoshi and our adventures together for awhile now. All this time we passed each other nearly every morning not knowing who each other was. Life is funny like that.
 

In her driveway we laughed about the irony of the situation. She told me about her three dogs and even promised treats for Yoshi on our future walks.

She made my day.

It was a simple thing, but making that connection meant so much. It made my neighborhood feel a little bit more like home.