(no subject)

[feotakahari]

Short story I vaguely remember from one of Gardner Dozois's old "best science fiction of the year" anthologies. An astronaut meets one of the aliens who used to keep humanity as pets, and she's instinctively drawn to it. It headpats her, then sends her away, because the aliens feel they stifled humanity's development and want them to someday be equals. She understands why, but she returns home to her dog, because she could never abandon her own pet like that.

I read this years before I knew what a puppy-girl was.