The adventures of Owney, the dog who traveled the nation on mail trains in the 1890s, were recently recalled in Philadelphia magazine.
The stray pup wandered into the Albany, NY, Post Office in 1888. The clerks let him stay the night, and soon Owney was riding mail trains across the nation.
He crisscrossed the United States, visited Canada and Mexico, and once even circled the globe aboard mail steamships.
The railway mail clerks made Owney an unofficial mascot, marking his travels by placing medals and tags from his stops on his collar.
The Philadelphia article traces Owney’s history, including a mention of the stamp the Postal Service issued in his honor in 2011.