Blogs by Kumar Biswas: Owney: The globe-trotter postal dog

Owney - the postal dog (Source - Internet)

This real life story occurred more than a century ago. The story is about Owney, the scruffy mutt who later became a globetrotter celebrity and won many hearts and medals.

In the year 1888, on a rainy night, a drenched homeless Border Terrier puppy entered a post office in Albany, New York State, USA. The back door of the post office was left open by someone and possibly in the quest of food and shelter he had ventured inside. Postal staff made the shivering puppy comfortable by wrapping him in a postal gunny bag and kept him in the backroom. Shortly, the supervisor of the post office came to know about the new guest. He raised his objections as it was against the rules and regulations of postal authorities.

When the supervisor objected, he was told that it was Owen's dog. Thus his name became Owney. Meanwhile, because of his loving and adorable nature, he became friendly with a staff of that post office. Upon seeing the sweet nature of Owney and insistence of staff members, the supervisor allowed Owney to stay. However, after some time the staff, to which Owney was most attached, left the post office. But to the surprise of many, Owney remained attached to the post office like a postage stamp stuck to an envelope. That is how Owney made a humble entry into the annals of postal history.

Owney with one of the 'owners', the kindhearted postal employee (Source - Internet)

Gradually, Owney became a permanent feature of the post office. It was noticed that Owney had special affinity for postal bags. He would sniff them, lick them and would make a bed out of one such bag. He got comfortable when he curled up and slept on a postal bag. When outside temperature dipped, postal staff would wrap him in postal bags ensuring warmth against the severe chill.

Due to his affinity towards mail bags, Owney started following the mail bags along with the postal staff all over. However, before we look into the travel log of Owney, let us see the strategic position of Albany railway station. From this station, railway mail train chugged to Boston (East), to Buffalo, Cleveland, Toledo, Chicago, etc. (West) and New York City (South). Owney began accompanying mail bags which were sent by railcars in all these directions. Over a period of nine years, from 1888 to 1897, he crisscrossed the country boarding mail cars. He traveled along with postal staff throughout contagious United States (48 numbers).

As the journey of Owney became regular, the postal clerks of Albany devised ‘Owney tag’ which was a dog collar with a metal tag inscribed "Owney, Post Office, Albany, New York". As he visited post offices, one after another, the mail staff added metal and leather tags to record his journey. Gradually this became a standard practice.

John Wanamaker, Postmaster General saw this and was quite amused. He presented Owney a specially designed harness like jacket on which the tags could be attached. Mail clerks would pin a baggage tag bearing the name of the city he would visit on the vest. These tags had recorded his visit to places like Canada, Mexico and Alaska etc. Tags and tokens on the new jacket jingled like Christmas bells with movement of Owney.

The travel log of Owney was not only interesting but also incredible. We are talking of an era when travel was not so easy. Aero plane was not invented (First powered and controlled flight by Wright Brothers was in 1903). For long distance journeys, the mode of travel was limited by rail cars on land and by ships on choppy water of oceans. Yet against all those odds of that time Owney became most traveled dog of the world.

The railway system, during that time, was in its infancy and was frequented by derailments and accidents. One interesting factor was noted by the staff that they found the trains with onboard Owney had never met with an accident!

Once this unique aspect was noted, Owney became permanent feature in the postal rail cars. He was considered as good luck. On the other hand, Owney became self-appointed guardian of mail bags. In his presence, other than the postal staff, nobody dared to come close and touch mail bags.

Let us narrate one example of his dutifulness.

In one of the rail journeys, one mail bag fell down from the train and nobody noticed it other than Owney. When the train reached the destination, the staff found that one bag was missing from the lot. They also discovered that Owney was also not found in the railcar.

They started walking backwards on the track and found that at one desolate place, by the side of rail line, the bag was lying. They were greeted by Owney who was guarding the consignment in that deserted location. Staff was happy to find out the missing bag, while Owney was happier as he did his duty.

Owney posing with US Mailbag (Source - Internet)

However, Owney was also known for taking French leaves. Sometimes he would disappear for days together and at times the absence spanned for a couple of months. In the year 1893, Owney vanished for several months and was not found at any of the stations. It was presumed that he might have died. But finally Owney reported back to his ‘duty’ with some injury which was caused due to some accident in Canada.

His one trip to Montreal, Canada has an interesting twist. When he visited the post office, the post master kept him at a rented kennel. He claimed that he had paid US$ 2.50 towards kennel expenses. He sent a demand note and stated that Owney could be released only after reimbursement of the expenditure. Owney was allowed to undertake his return journey, only after settling of the bill by Albany post office.

He had logged more than 1,40,000 miles around the world. On 19th Aug 1895 he boarded a steamer along with mail staff and mail bags at Tacoma, Washington. In the voyage, his journey was recorded as "Registered Dog Package". His travel itinerary through the steamships "Victoria" and "Port Phillip" included Japan, China, Singapore, Suez, Algiers and the Azores etc. After making a world tour he returned to New York on 23rd Dec 1895 and then by rail to Tacoma. It was a jubilant moment for the fans of Owney.

He traveled town after town along with the postal professionals. He was a sensation or a celebrity some sort of. Believe it or not, the local newspapers would feature the visit of the town by Owney. The arrival of Owney to the town was informed to the office of the newspaper by the local postmaster. Editor of the newspaper would depute a reporter to cover the arrival story of Owney in the newspaper of next day morning. The Los Angeles Times dated 20th April 1893 had given a wide coverage about the arrival of Owney on the previous evening.

The story of Owney was not taken from fairy tales and hence there was no happy ending. It was 11th June 1897; Owney was chained at the basement of the post office of Toledo, Ohio. A publicity hungry postal staff called a reporter from a local newspaper to show off Owney. The poor Owney was already aged by this time. Moreover he was not accustomed to such type of treatment. It was not known what else he was subjected to at that time of 'interview'. The bottom line was that he was very upset with the environment - the chain, the damp basement, may be also unfriendly behavior of the postal staff and that of the reporter. He became agitated and started barking. In that process, the postal staff might have irritated him more than his tolerance limit. Exasperated, at the spur of moment, he bit the hand of the postal clerk.

Taken by surprise, once bitten, the postal staff became angry. He wanted to take revenge on poor Owney. He immediately rushed to the Post Master of Toledo Post Office and complained that Owney has gone mad. As proof of his allegation he showed the injury purportedly caused by Owney. The Post Master was reluctant to believe the story but he with his evil arguments, convinced him. With his heavy heart, the Post Master called the Police. The Policeman did his duty. He shot Owney to death!

History says that the postal staff died afterwards from the bite but that was a different story.

Death of Owney caused a shock wave among his fan followers. There were many fans of Owney in the postal department. It was not only limited in the postal department of US but also all over the world.

When the question was raised to bury the beloved Owney, the postal staff simply denied doing that. Postal staff from all over the country demanded that due honor to be given to Owney, even after death, by preserving his mortal remains. To show their love and affection towards departed Owney, the mail staff raised money and got his body stuffed. The marvelous work was done by Paul Rhymer, the Smithsonian’s former taxidermist. Initially the taxidermy body of Owney was displayed in a glass box at the Headquarter of Post Office in Washington, DC.

The lifeless body of globe trotter Owney kept on changing places, even after many years of his death. In the year 1904, it was taken to St. Louis Fair. The journey still continued. Stuffed Owney then moved to Smithsonian Institution and from there to Philadelphia. After sometime he was again shifted back to Smithsonian Institution. Finally in 1993, his remains were moved to New National Postal Museum in Washington, DC. Posthumously, Owney has been granted a permanent shelter at this museum.

Even today, his lifeless body is loved and adored by million people from all over the world. Though Owney is dead, the Preservation Department of the museum has a duty to preserve the taxidermy body of Owney. Periodically Owney is taken out of the display box, cleaned, examined and again returned to the case for public admiration. According to available records at the museum, he was taken out for a 'walk' in 2005, then again in 2010 and the periodic check continues.

One of many stamps on Owney, worldwide

There he can be found standing wearing the vest which was once decorated with 1000+ medals and tags. The items on his jacket had wide ranges e.g. badges, tokens, baggage claim tags, buttons, coins, medals, hotel key checks and other trinkets. Some of these tags testify the journey of this globe trotter. Many of the tags have not survived but New National Postal Museum has a collection of 372 Owney tags and several tokens, trinkets, and medals etc. On the back side of one tag it was inscribed "Republique Francaise / N.J. Schloss & Co."

One of the preserved tags (Source - Internet)

These laurels were bestowed on him during his journey as unofficial mascot of the Railway Post Office as well as United States Postal Service.

Besides these tags and trinkets, Owney had won many accolades during his lifetime. No dog show (known as Bench Show at that time) in the nearby town was complete without his gracious presence. He was always decorated with some award or other, in each and every such show.

At the peak of his ‘career’, in between 1893 and 1897, as celebrity dog he was given several special awards and medals by various Kennel Clubs. Winnona Kilbridge of the Los Angeles Kennel Club gave him a medal for "Best Traveled Dog" of 1893. In the year 1894, he had received a "Globe Trotter" medal from one Mr. William Winter Wagner of Chicago. It was reported that Emperor of Japan had awarded him two passports and several medals bearing the Japanese coat of arms.

In order to immortalize Owney, on 27^th July, 2011, United States Post Services issued a Forever postage stamp worth 44 cent on beloved Owney. That stamp has spread wings all over through US Postal Services.