One of my neighbors has two little dogs, yorkies.

(Actually, just one is a yorkie. He had a pair before, but when they both died of old age he wasn't able to get a second pair. The yorkie he adopted was already best buddies with another small non-yorkie dog. But I don't know what breed the other one is. It's not really relevant here.)

They're Tink and Wendy, and our walking cycles overlap significantly with theirs. We've spent the better part of the past year carefully encouraging Moonpie and Wendy to stop yapping their heads off when they see each other (Moonpie learned faster - she generally stops barking at strange dogs once she realizes she sees them regularly) and we've recently escalated to visiting very carefully and sniffing hello! (Well, three out of four doggies sniff hello. Wendy sniffs and hides.)

Just a few days ago, I walked the dogs, and those two were out in their yard, and Moonpie was so excited to say hi to her new doggy friend that she dragged me across the street and whined at me until we were close enough they could sniff through the fence, tails wagging like nobody's business.

This is four years of progress, and it is amazing to see!

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