New Orbit Magazine Issue 08; Feb 2020, The Future of Animals

environmental damage that’ll cause? Like you
said, that'll take out more than Dogs”.
“There’ll be some noticeable short-term
issues, but it'll be only a year, two max, before
Cascadia is back to the state it was in before
the ferals got there.”
“Which is what they want?”
“Yes. Which is what they want.”
With a full belly, and half-closed eyes, Grey
Dog surveyed the blue-green morning of another
day in Grand Cascadia. She could hear the swell
of the hard-edged rivers and the ever-stronger music
of another generation of songbirds, over the
contented grumbling of her family at ease. She
raises her nose to howl over the valley – their valley.
She is lucky, that she’s never known the dustbowl
that it was before. Her family was lucky they'd
never see it again. As they join her howl, all that
matters is that, right now, they are somewhere
beautiful, and plentiful, and lush, and safe.
As the howl wended out over the woodland
below them, Grey Dog watched with mild
disinterest a distant black spot that whined noisily
overhead. As it passed directly above them, it shed
something, that fell slowly their way. Rocks?
Leaves? Feathers?
As the spots grew slowly from their points in
the sky, Grey Dog stretched comfortably, planted a
kiss on her yearling’s ears, and chose not to worry
about it. ◊