Meet Owney
Facts about Owney:
* terrier mix
* lived in the 1880’s in Albany NY
* unofficial mascot of the Railway Mail Service
* traveled across the country with the mail bags and was considered a good luck charm.
* Owney is now honored in a postage stamp.
* postal clerks affixed tags to his collar to document his travels
* Owney had so many tags, the Postmaster General gave him a special harness to hold them all
* You can see photographs of Owney’s tags.
* If your dog looks like Owney, you can enter him in an Owney Look Alike Contest! Entrants should “Love to travel…fetch the mail…and be a mutt or adopted.” Prizes include an iPad2.
* You can read children’s books about Owney: Owney the Mail Pooch by Mona Kerby, and A Lucky Dog by Dirk Wales.
* Owney was preserved, and now can be seen at the National Postal Museum in Washington DC.
* Lots more info, including how Owney on display got a bath, can be found at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum blog.
