Decades ago, yeah I'm old, I read two short stories involving dogs in Science Fiction. They may have been published in Hugo or Nebula collections.
Perhaps I'm not choosing my key words for search engine correctly, but I've not been able to come up with either one, and hope someone here has a better memory than I do.
The first was a story about what happens when one lies, or fabricates what seems like a minor deviation from the truth. The ship in the story lives under absolute control and accounting of everything, including tiny bits of wire, paper, etc. With careful attention, the ship's mechanic and others do accumulate a few things. A directive comes from central command to do a complete accounting of everything on the list sent to them, which details all things on board. Things go smoothly until they come to the listing of "Off. Dog." This cannot be found and they need to account for it. The officers on board come up with a plan to use a few bits of the secretely accumulated detritus to make an Off.Dog. and then fabricate a story about how it disappeared with their last jump to light speed. The accounting of all items is sent back, with the notation that the Off.Dog disintegrated during the last light speed jump, and therefore was not accounted for in this inventory, and should be removed from their list.
Immediately a system-wide directive comes from Central Command that all ships must remain under light speed and station in place while a thorough investigation of why the Officers' Dog (pet) disintegrated during that speed change.
A big oops! I guess they made the situation worse.
The second one is about a solo explorer based on lonely Mars in an outpost doing research and observation. One night he hears his dog barking loudly and urgently. He awakens to see that he must vacate his post to a mobile area as an incoming meteor or something is about to hit, destroying it and him if he were still sleeping. He jumps into his space suit and drives away quickly to look back and see his station hit and destroyed. Only then does he recall that his prized companion and savior dog had died a few weeks ago.
A wee bit spooky, and of course both authors had skill in telling their stories in a way that got them into the collections of Hugo or Nebula.
Any leads for me?
Dale
