Short Science Fiction Story Review Connie Willis The Last Of The Winnebagos

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1988 – Spoiler alerts A bleak story looking at a future where many animals have become extinct, including dogs. A viral disease has wiped out most dogs, including wild dogs like coyotes. Even accidentally killing animals, even in road accidents can get suspects investigated by a sinister police division that has grown out of animal rights activist groups. Big vehicles such as camper vans have been banned because they are too much of a threat to remaining wildlife. One old couple have turned their immovable Winnebago SUV into a museum. A reporter, looking into the story of the last Winnebago discovers a dead dog in the road on her route to the interview, but takes the body with her and reports it later rather than right away. The Winnebago is parked by the museum of a zoo, lacking any animals. The reporter finds herself interrogated over the dog she moved and also over the death of her own dog years before when she helped cover up the accidental killing of her pet by a friend she now struggles to protect. The reporter notes how photo of dogs do little to capture their personality or true characters, but when she sees a photo of herself she knows that one has captured the anguish of a lost, dying World and her beloved pets in their Essence. A poetic, sad look at an all too plausible future slowly stripped of the good things that make life special to us. Arthur Chappell