Tribute to  Austin Overdozin' (Ausi) (click on photo to enlarge)

Date:    Tue, 19 Mar 2002
Subject: Ausi Tribute (long)

Since I am no longer on the list, I'm posting this via my wife, Christy
Bailey.

Some of you know about Ausi, our rescue who came into our lives a little
over 2 1/2 years ago.  We ended up with her almost by accident, and were
unsure of what we might have gotten ourselves into at the time.  At first
we only intended to foster her for a time for Peggy, and she actually
wasn't the dog we were suppose to be fostering.  At that time we also had a
six month old cattlekid of our own (Derby) that we were still trying to
figure out.  When we got her she was skittish, overweight, and had a dull,
course coat.  She had been neglected in her prior life, not the one Peggy
had made for her, but the one previous to that.  The first time I tried to
pet her she snapped at me, and I wondered what I was getting myself into.
Within two days of taking her home with us though she had won my, and
especially Christy's, heart.  We had renamed her from Chalk to Austin
Overdozin' (Ausi) because she slept on the entire trip home from Austin to
Houston, and we had already decided to adopt her ourselves.

Thus began the trimming of her weight problem.  Within just a few short
months we managed to bring her weight from 65lbs, down to 45 lbs, and
increase her stamina considerably.  She still had some personality issues
(one time while camping with my family she tried to attack my dad, but was
stopped by her tie-out), which were getting better, but she seemed like a
new dog.  She had a new, shiny, almost black coat, a new attitude, and had
decided to latch herself permanently to Christy.  For the rest of her life
she seldomly left Christy's side if she was around, and when she would
leave, Ausi would not relax until her return.

This was her life for the next year and a half.  She alway seemed happy, we
taught her a few tricks, she did "happy dances" and talked to us when we
asked her if she was hungry (she loved to eat), and her issues with
strangers were subsiding.  Then in the spring of 2001 something terrible
happened.  Over the course of about two weeks several things happened that
caused us to ultimately find out the our active baby girl had liver cancer.

She had given us so much that Christy and I decided to admit her to the
Texas A&M vet clinic to see what could be done about removing a massive
tumor attached to her liver.  Prognosis was not that great, but the
decision was made by us and the surgeon to go through with the surgery.
She was given about a 70% chance of surviving the surgery, and it would not
be known until after the surgery whether the tumor was malignant or benign.
Like a true cattledog she made it through the surgery just fine, and won
the hearts of the surgeon and the vet student that was attending to her
while she was there, but the other news was not so sweet.  The tumor was in
fact malignant, and some of it was not able to be removed because it was
attached to the stem of her liver.  The doctor said that the type of cancer
she had was not very responsive to treatments, and that humans with the
same type of cancer were lucky to make it nine months with treatments.  She
gave Ausi about three to six months.  On the up side though, we had a very
happy dog now who made her former activity level look like nothing, and the
doctor told us that the type of cancer she had would not cause her any
pain.

Ausi recovered from the surgery in no time (about a week) and began to set
out to prove everything wrong.  She became much more playful, she jumped
around for the first time, and she started winning the hearts of everyone
around her (even my dad who she had tried to attack once).  Six months
later she still had no outward evidence of having cancer, and we were
greatful for the quality of the time we were being given with her.  Over
the next six months though, evidence of the cancer started surfacing, but
she still would not be slowed down.

She went a year, almost to the day, before she started to give it up.  Like
a true cattledog, even with the cancer eating away at her muscle mass
daily, she refused to slow down.  Just after the aniversary of her surgery,
as if to say "OK, now I've proved them wrong and can rest now" she started
slowing down.  The past 3 1/2 weeks had been a rapid, downhill plunge for
her, but she still continued to look happy, she was just losing the
capacity to function.  And then Sunday, as if she was trying to tell us
"good bye" she walked out in the back yard, went behind our garage, and
laid down.  She would not come back in, so we decided that if that's what
she wanted, then we would make her as comfortable as possible back there.
She spent Sunday afternoon lounging under a tree in our back yard,
occasionally getting a drink out of a bowl of water that I had brought her,
and Sunday evening she told us in her own way that she wanted to sleep out
under the stars.

When I left for work yesterday (Monday) morning at about 5:30, I walked out
with a flashlight to check on her, and she had moved about 10 feet.  She
lifted her head up and looked at me, and I pet her on the head and told her
she could let go if she wanted to.  She wagged her tail a little, and
watched me walk away before laying her head back down, and when Christy
left for work about an hour later Ausi did the same for her.  I came to the
decision at work Monday that if she made it to Monday evening, that I would
probably ask Christy if we could have a vet friend of ours (the same one
that initially found the tumor on her liver, and had basicly put herself on
24 hour call for us during the past two weeks) come over and end her fight
before she suffered to much, but Ausi wouldn't have it.  When Christy got
home from work she found Ausi's body laying in the same spot we had left
her that morning.  She gave up the fight finally, but she gave it up, she
wasn't going to let us do it for her.

In the months to come I'm sure they'll be many times when we miss her
barking for food, her happy dances, her swimming in the lake when we camp,
but Christy and I have been blessed for the past two years by a little blue
girl who taught us something about love, and fighting for something you
love.

Thank you to all of you on the list who have at one time or another over
the past year given us encouraging words, or said little prayers for us.
And thank you Peggy for letting us spend the last couple of years with this
loving little girl.

And most importantly, thank you Ausi.  We won't forget you!!

Kris Bailey

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Ausi and Christy with Kris in background July 2001