The official canine mascot of the Railway Mail Service in the late 1800s, “Owney,” is being honored with a new U.S. commemorative postage stamp on Wednesday, July 27, and Toledo Post Office employees are joining with local train enthusiasts, school children and the community to celebrate.
A special Toledo postmark will be offered from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Yaquina Pacific Railroad Historical Society’s restored Railroad Post Office Car, Southern Pacific RPO #5132, next to the Toledo Post Office at 147 NW 1st St. Other events celebrating the new stamp will continue until 7 p.m.
In addition to sales of the new “Forever stamps” and the accompanying free collectible postmarks, the day’s activities will include a 4 p.m. Owney dog look-alike contest and dog agility demonstrations by a local dog trainer. Rabies shots and microchips will also be offered by local veterinarians. Winners of a coloring contest sponsored by Toledo Postmaster George Bowles will be announced at 6 p.m.
In the late 1800’s, a tramp dog adopted the mail clerks in the Albany, NY, Post Office. Over time and with the care of the mail clerks, Owney began catching rides in Railway Post Offices cars and would be gone for days and months at a time.
Upon his death the mail clerks took up a collection and sent Owney to a taxidermist.
Owney today is displayed at the National Postal Museum in Washington, DC.
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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. We’re everywhere so you can be anywhere: www.uspseverywhere.com. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $67 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.
