"Desertion", written by Clifford D. Simak in 1944, follows the story of an army commander and his dog. The story is set on Jupiter, where a military commander, Harold Fowler, has been losing men in his attempt to colonize the planet. The reason is both obvious and frightening.
This was one of the first science fiction stories about pantropy (the word had not yet been coined), and if you don’t know what that is, don’t look it up. You’ll enjoy the story more without knowing first!
I really love the concept behind this story. I may or may not have tried to rip off Simak’s story when I was a teenager trying to get a story published in Analog Magazine! (It was rejected—and rightfully so.)
Mind Webs was a 1970's series out of WHA Radio in Wisconsin that featured weekly short stories of science fiction by some of the genre's best writers. The music, sound cues and occasional character voices along with the performance of Michael Hansen, the reader, resulted in better than most fully dramatized productions of the period. Around 150 shows were aired between 1976 and 1984 varying in length, but most were about 30 minutes.
Mind Webs: Desertion - Clifford Simak - 30:59