And Toto too!

Stilly, perhaps it would help if you were to read to the dogs. Yes! Read them Clifford Simak's City!


(Brief synopsis just in case there's anyone in the world who's never read it...)

CITY was first published in 1952.

In a distant future, Earth is ruled by dogs. They are able to speak and they like to study the old legends describing a world ruled by Humans. These legends, that cover thousands of years, are about the Webster family who produced an impressive number of scientists and politicians during the course of time. They are also about Jenkins, a robot who served all the Websters who lived in the family home.

After having found a way to produce food for the entire population and master the atomic energy, Humans had started to leave the cities and to live without central governments. Later, when the first pioneers found out that life on Jupiter, after the necessary and adequate physical conditioning, was way better than on Earth, the whole population left the Earth, leaving it to mutants and homeless robots. Anticipating the inevitable decline of the human race, the scientist Jon Webster modified then the vocal cords of the dogs, trained them and asked Jenkins the robot to look after them in the future in order that the dogs avoid making the errors the human civilization did.

Synopsis by Daniel Staebler at www.allscifi.com. If you don't like the way it's written, don't come gunnin' for me.

One thing the reviewer doesn't mention is the idea of the "cobbly worlds" that are off-limits to human perception but of which dogs are fully aware. When multiple dogs begin howling or barking for no apparent reason it's because of something happening in the cobbly worlds. That's the part Stilly's dogs would really enjoy.