Gene Wolfe's "Unrequited Love": For admirers of Asimov's robot stories

This has the flavor of an average robot story by Asimov, though not with his rigor. An ok read.

Full text of this story can be downloaded here.

Story summary.
We don't know the name, sex, or age of narrator - though I got the impression it's an adult human rather than a robot.

Narrator's neighbors are Dan & Tamara Robinson. For whatever reason, they don't want to have a real child; so they get a little robot girl! She is Roberta.

Roberta is just like any other girl. Looks like she is not of metallic skin; not sure. She goes to school, though of course, she knows far more than her colleagues, & loves helping them. She shows expected emotions - jumping up when happy, crying, sadness, ...

Julianne is human, & is Roberta's classmate & friend. One fine day, they get their dog pets. Roberta's pet is a real dog; Julianne's is robot dog.

On encouragement from narrator, they exchange their dogs for a while. And then things go a bit sour, as dogs show their preferences for their own kind!

Fact sheet.
"Unrequited Love", short story, review
First published: Subterranean, Summer 2007.
Rating: B