The dog who owned the mail

He was a likable, stray border terrier who had two hobbies: He liked to travel and he liked mail bags.

In particular, the dog who became known as Owney liked to sleep on mail bags and it did not matter to him if the mail bags were headed across town or across country.

In the late 1800s, when dogs frequently roamed freely, Owney became the darling mascot of the postal service and even a world traveler.

It all started in 1888 in Albany, NY, when the dog showed up at a post office and was adopted by the postal workers. They noticed Owney liked to sleep on mail bags and one other thing: Owney was friendly toward postal workers who needed to move mail bags, but he was decidedly unfriendly to non-postal workers.

The talent was a useful one as Owney traveled from one post office to another, guarding mail bags in return for food and water. On one occasion, a mail bag fell off a train and Owney stayed with the bag until a worker came back for it.

He quickly gained fame across the postal service. An 1893 book by Cushing Marshall has this description: “The terrier ‘Owney’ travels from one end of the country to the other in the postal cars, tagged through, petted, talked to, looked out for, as a brother, almost. But sometimes, no matter what the attention, he suddenly departs for the south, the east, or the west, and is not seen again for months.”

Albany postal workers worried when Owney disappeared for months. They had a special collar made with the address of the Albany Post Office, just so he could be identified.
At the various post offices he visited, Owney got a new tag clipped to his collar until finally he jingled loudly with every step.

The circumstances of Owney’s death are disputed. Some say he became old and aggressive. Others say he was mistreated. But all agree he was put down June 11, 1897.
He is still honored at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington, DC, where 397 of his medals and tags are on display, along with his preserved body.