When I say "old"  I mean it.  The story takes place on a planet other then Earth, an Earth that  humans left millennia ago.  The last words were terrific!  They went something like this:

         "Are you Man?"

        "Are you Dog?

I don't think it'"s by Eric Frank Russell or Isaac Asimov.  I'm hoping it's in some anthology.  It's a killer when something pops into your mind, like an itch you can't scratch.

I guess this is not much help, but I do have most of Eric Frank Russell's better known short stories anthologized in "The Best of Eric Frank Russell" and a few other anthologies, and none match your description.  Asimov wrote too much for me to say one way or another.  You can look through the short story titles if you do a search by author on fantasticfiction.com and see if anything jumps out at you.  If you have any other guesses on the author, I'd be happy to check my various anthologies...but that would probably only help if it was a relatively well-known piece.

I read something like that recently, where dogs and cats had evolved and were living peacefully without mankind. Then a spaceship returns with a couple of humans on board.  The cats don't like it, but the dogs side with the humans (man's best friend). I think it was on The Last Man on Earth (ISBN-13: 9780449245316, ISBN-10: 0449245314), but I've since swapped it so can't check for you. I'll be keeping my eyes open for this book at the upcoming library sales, as it's often wish-listed.

-Fred

I looked up the ISBN...is it the Simak story you're talking about?  I might have it in another anthology.  I'll double check when I get home.

No, tho the Simak story also has intelligent dogs.  Maybe "Kindness" by Lester Del Rey?  I can remember some of the stories based on the title, but not all.

Yeah, I think I did find the Simak story (under a different title) and it didn't fit the description.  I don't think I have the Del Ray story in any of my anthologies.

Edit - I found a story called The Faithful by Lester Del Ray that features Man-Dogs, but it does not have the lines "Are You Man?"  and "Are you Dog?"  I have it in a collection called Now Begins Tomorrow edited by Damon Knight and published in 1963.  The story itself was originally published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1938.

If it doesn't have the "Are you"  Are you" dialogue, I'm pretty sure it's not the story.  There are certain things that just stick with you, in fact, give you (at least me) chills.  This is one of them -- in a good way.  Another ending line is: 

     All flowers love the sun,

I recalled the story and the gist of it.  Couldn't recall the title but knew it had to do with metamorphosis but nothing to do with Kafka.  Then I discovered Metamorphosite  --  Eric Frank Russell.  One of my copies is in  an anthology called Journey to Infinity, edited by Martin Greenberg.  If you have it, read it.  I do, again and again.  To me, it's a feel good kind of story.  I recommend highly.

Thanks for the input.  I'll keep checking this Forum.

Ruth

Metamorphosite I do have in the Del Ray book The Best of Eric Frank Russell.   No dogs in that collection, though.

There are two great places to get help finding stories that I know of.  One is on Abe Books, the Booksleuth  forum http://forums.abebooks.com/n/mb/listsf.asp?webtag=abesleuthcom&gfc=1&sts=9%2F18%2F2008+9%3A32%3A50+PM

The other is on the SF Site discussion Forum, the section called "Can you tell me the name of this story" http://www.sfsite.com/forum/

Good luck!