Dog Who Barked at Mailman for 9 Years Finally Catches Him, Now Runs the Route

RUSTON, La. — After nine years of barking at the same mail carrier from behind the same front window, a 10-year-old shepherd mix named Moose finally caught him Tuesday at the bottom of the Hendersons’ driveway, then stood there with no idea what to do next.

“You could see it on his face,” said neighbor Patrice Dunaway, who watched Moose hold carrier Lyle Ostrander, 58, by the pant leg for about 40 seconds. “Nine years of yelling, and he’d never once thought about the part after.”

Moose resolved the situation by taking the mailbag.

By Thursday he was running the entire route, all 214 houses, and finishing by 10:40 a.m., roughly three hours faster than any human carrier. He cannot read, but after nine years of patrolling the street he knows every resident by smell and every porch by heart. Misdelivered mail on the route has dropped to zero. He skips the house with the cat.

“His numbers are the best in the district,” said station supervisor Darlene Postmark. “He has never used a scanner. We have stopped asking about the scanner.”

Ostrander, freed from the route, has developed a habit of his own. It started with the Pruitts’ schnauzer last week. “I was walking by and I just let him have it,” he said. “Something lifted off my chest. I finally get it.”

His wife says he now stands at their living room window most mornings, barking at a golden retriever on its daily walk. “He doesn’t want to hurt it,” she said. “He just needs it to know.”

When this reporter left, Moose was at the end of the Hendersons’ driveway with the bag at his feet, barking at a parcel van that he appears to have decided is next.