He collected 1,021 medals. He traveled 142,000 miles. Thousands turned out to see him wherever he appeared. He was a scruffy, stray dog. His name was Owney.

SYNOPSIS:

Owney’s story, as seen through the eyes of those whose lives he touched, begins in the early winter of 1888, when the brown bedraggled terrier eludes a dog catcher on a busy Albany, NY city street, battles a large black stray dog for a scrap of food and sneaks into the rail post office. He’s discovered in the morning by Garrett, a bitter, dog-hating clerk who attempts to drive him out, but rescued by mail clerks Clay and William, who feed him and allow him to stay. Owen, an older mail carrier, befriends the dog and he and the two clerks name him Owney.

When Owen succumbs to the heat and passes away, mourning Owney jumps in a railroad mail car and ends up in Toledo. Postal clerks there send him back. On his return, William decides Owney needs some identification, and has a collar and tag made for him. Before his next journey, William attaches a note to Owney’s collar, asking the clerks at the other end to attach a baggage tag to Owney’s collar, so he can have a record of places he visits.

During his travels, Owney collects a large volume of tags, weighing down his collar. The sympatheric Postmaster General of the U.S. sends him a special red jacket to hold them all. In a Chicago rail yard, Owney discovers a bomb and warns authorities. Garrett is still determined to rid the post office of Owney, so before a trip to Canada, he removes the dog’s I.D. Owney is held in the Montreal pound as a stray. He escapes and makes his way back to Albany where he’s greeted by Clay who brings him home to Mrs. O’Reilly’s boarding house, where he and Garrett live. Mrs. O’Reilly finds Garrett shooting out his window at a stray dog and warns him he’ll be thrown out if it happens again.

Owney is off to San Francisco next, where a young station worker and two of his friends try to sneak into a dog show, but are run off by security, leaving Owney behind. A show official recognizes Owney and brings him onstage, where he’s introduced to the crowd and presented with an award by the mayor.

It’s now 1894 and William feels Owney can use a great adventure before he gets too old, so he arranges passage for Owney to Kobe, Japan, where the emperor has Owney come to the palace to visit his son. Some visiting English schoolgirls wander down a path through steaming sulfur springs while Owney tags along. Owney rescues a girl who slips into the sulfur, and receives a medal from the emperor.

Back in Albany, Owney gets into a fight with a stray dog and is badly injured. Owney makes a final trip to San Francisco to attend the 1897 National Association of Railway Clerks Annual Convention. In Albany,

a reporter stops by to see Owney and get information for a story. William and Clay are unavailable, so Garrett roughly drags Owney to the reporter. Owney bites Garrett, who then pulls him away. When Owney is nowhere around, William searches the area and finds the weak Owney behind a bush. William gently picks him up and carries him back to the post office, where he sets Owney on his mail sack bed and

covers him, knowing the end is most likely near.

When he hears of Owney’s passing, Railway Superintendent White decides Owney should have a place of honor, so Owney’s sent to the Smithsonian where, some years later, his display is visited by Clay and his son. Owney remains at the Smithsonian today.