Auggie Doggie (originally posted 9/08/21)

These days, we have a dog named Cassius. We picked him up from a rescue in 2013 when he was about one year old. He is a scruffy black wire-haired pointing griffon mix. He’s simply the best dog we could ever ask for. I’d lie if I said that when searching for a dog, I wasn’t at all inspired by a previous black dog my family had, a beagle/lab mix named Katie. Katie was also a fantastic dog and companion – smart, energetic, and sophisticated. But before Katie, there was Auggie. Auggie Doggy.

 Auggie was a silky black Labrador retriever who lived with her family in the house across the alley. Her owners were a couple named Dave and Liz. Dave and Liz had recently married and bought their first home – a brick bungalow with heavy steel back stairs. We didn’t know them until they got Auggie. After they got Auggie, we would know when she was outside in the backyard because she would always happily come to the tall wooden fence and gate and stick her nose between the narrow slats in anticipation of greeting us. It wasn’t long before we became friendly with Dave and Liz, and earned their trust. Soon, we would simply open the gate and pet Auggie, who was always wriggling with excitement and wanting to play. During the school year, we always checked to see if Auggie was in the yard before hopping in the car to school. If she was (and she often was), we’d crack the gate open and pet her for a few minutes until my mom made it clear it was time to GO. After school or during the summer, we just went right in the yard and played keep away with one of her toys. I think Dave and Liz liked that we came over, because we always wore Auggie out. I also tend to think that they liked us, too. They didn’t have children yet, and seemed to enjoy our company.

 Before long, me and my little sister Cheryl were trusted to take Auggie for walks. We just walked into the yard and to the house and asked, and we were never turned away. We were handed her brown leather leash and were off. We took her up and down the alley, around the block, sometimes to the park, and often to our yard and house. On hot days we’d make sprinklers with our thumbs on the hose in hopes that she would like to play in the water, but at best she was indifferent toward that. One time, I went for a ride with Dave and Auggie to Bunker Hill Forest Preserve. Auggie ended up getting loose somehow and she ended up in a pond and covered with mud. Dave had to hose Auggie off in the backyard with cold water and Auggie had that nervous whale-eye expression going on.

 As time went on, Dave and Liz became parents to two children, and our involvement with Auggie became more important. We were the only way that dog was going to get walks or played with. We moved in 1996, when Auggie was about four years old. But shortly before we moved, we got a puppy of our own. It was the aforementioned Katie. Katie looked a lot like Auggie and the two shared many characteristics. It was sort of like taking a little slice of our lives with us when we moved out of the neighborhood.

 Following our move, we never saw Auggie again. I do know that the marriage between Dave and Liz began deteriorating around the time we moved, and they eventually divorced. We knew this because my sister Patty would occasionally babysit their children after we moved. Saddest of all is that both Dave and Liz passed away in recent years (discovered through Google searches). I sometimes wonder how Auggie held her own during those rough times. I wonder if she lived a long, happy life. I like to think she died, old and grey, in peace. At the very least, her early years were vibrant and enriching, while enriching our lives and leaving memories that will last forever (and forever shape our decisions when it comes to choosing dogs!).