The dog, the paper, and the sorry master

Once there was a sweet little dog who loved to play fetch, but had no one to play with. Then, one lovely morning, the little dog found a pleasant little house on a hill where there was a kind-looking old lady who rose early each morning to come out of the house in her bathrobe to get the paper. The little dog thought to herself, "I will fetch her paper, and she will love me. Then she will play fetch with me every day, and she will be my master, and I will be her dog." The little dog ran to the front of the house, fetched the paper, and sat down obediently in front of the lady with her tiny tail wiggling excitedly. The old lady was not pleased. "Bad dog!" She said. "Give me my paper!" The little dog's tail stopped wagging and her mouth dropped open in surprise. The old lady snatched the paper out of the dog's mouth and popped her on the head with it. As the dog ran away in confusion and fear, she wondered what she had done wrong. "I must have picked it up incorrectly," she thought. "I will try again tomorrow." The next morning she tried again, a little differently, but with the same result. Each day for a week she tried to please the kind-looking old woman by bringing her the paper, and each time she ran away, tail between her legs from a newspaper whipping. At the end of the week, the little dog was beginning to think that she was not very good at fetch. After all, all that was required was getting the paper into the hands of the person, and she had done that very well all week, but the person was clearly not happy with her. What was she doing wrong. She sat by the sidewalk, tail drooping, head on her paws, whimpering to herself. "What's the matter little one?" said a sweet little voice. She looked up to see a little girl walking down the curb like it was a balance beam. The girl knelt down and clapped her hands together, holding them out a bit so that she could smell them. "Come here puppy. Here little one!" The little dog was curious - she walked slowly over to the little girl and sniffed her hands in greeting. She looked into her eyes - they were kind and playful. "Hey," said the little girl, "wanna play fetch? do you know how to play fetch?" she picked up a stick off the ground and waved it in front of the dog, who looked at her excitedly. She threw it.