  We introduce the simplest one-dimensional model of a dispersive optical
medium with saturable dissipative nonlinearity and filtering (dispersive loss)
which gives rise to stable solitary pulses (autosolitons). In the particular
case when the dispersive loss is absent, the same model may also be interpreted
as describing a stationary field in a planar optical waveguide with uniformly
distributed saturable gain and absorption. In a certain region of the model's
parameter space, two coexisting solitary-pulse solutions are found numerically,
one of which may be stable. Solving the corresponding linearized eigenvalue
problem, we identify stability borders for the solitary pulses in their
parametric plane. Beyond one of the borders, the symmetric pulse is destroyed
by asymmetric perturbations, and at the other border it undergoes a Hopf
bifurcation, which may turn it into a breather.
