Owney, the Stray Dog Who Rode the Mail Trains

The Stray Dog Who Rode Every Mail Train in America A stray dog walked into a post office, and became the most famous traveler in America. This really happened, in 1888, in Albany, New York. His name was Owney. He loved the smell of the mail bags. He slept on them every night, and the postal clerks adopted him. One day, he followed the mail bags onto a train. And he never stopped. He rode mail trains all over America, guarding the bags like treasure. Clerks in every town put metal tags on his collar, to show where he had been. He got so many tags, they made him a little jacket to carry them all. He even traveled around the world, by ship, and came back home. In nine years he traveled about two hundred twenty-five thousand kilometers. Today he is in a museum in Washington, with his tags. Not bad for a stray. A dog walked into a post office, and became the most famous traveler in America.