Existing comment:
"Owney acknowledges no master save about 100,000 United States postal clerks throughout the length and breadth of this land."
-- Washington Post, December 27, 1895
Owney:
As a pup, Owney followed his owner to work at the post office in Albany, New York. When his master left that job, Owney stayed behind, following mailbags onto train cars. Soon he had thousands of friends among America's Railway Mail Service clerks. So many people added tags to Owney's collar that Postmaster General John Wanamaker had a harness made to help him carry the weight. After Owney died in 1897, his mail clerk friends raised money to preserve their mascot. |