I have a neighbor here in Pleasanton who has more visitors than most people I know. She is a golden retriever named Riley, and she has spent years making it her business to greet anyone who walks, bikes, or drives past her house.
I see it constantly. The Saturday morning running club stops to visit and hang out. Cyclists stop mid-ride just to say hello. Neighbors time their evening walks to swing past her yard. Kids know her by name before they know half the adults on the block. She plants herself out front and waits, and somehow whoever stops for a minute with her ends up staying for ten.
Somewhere along the way, that turned into a real fan club. People check in on her the way you would check in on a friend. It is not organized and nobody planned it, but it is one of those small rituals that makes a street feel like a neighborhood instead of just a place people happen to live.
A Harder Chapter
Riley was recently diagnosed with nasal cancer. It is aggressive, and the effects on the side of her nose have continued to grow. Her owners are understandably devastated. I have watched them go through the kind of worry that anyone who has loved a dog will recognize immediately. It is heartbreaking but the silver lining is her fan club.
This has struck me the most about what has not changed. The visitors have not stopped coming. If anything, there are more of them. People are still showing up on her lawn every day, not despite what she is going through, but because of it. Often these are people that Riley’s owners have never met before. They have told me how much it means to see that support show up in person, day after day. They warmly greet visitors and it is touching to see this form of humanity unfold daily.
Why I Wanted to Write This
I do not usually write about my own neighborhood, but I could not stop thinking about this one. This is the part of Pleasanton that never shows up in a market report. It is a dog that loves to sit in the front yard and a neighborhood that decided, without any announcement, that she was worth checking on regularly. That is the kind of thing that makes people love where they live, even when they cannot fully explain why.
If you have ever stopped to say hello to Riley, I would love to hear about it in the comments. And if you have a dog, a neighbor, or a small local tradition anywhere in Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon, or Danville that deserves a little attention, send it my way. These are the stories I want to keep telling. And these are what makes community.
Patty Recupero REALTOR® | ELATION REAL ESTATE | CA DRE 02112275