There is a common misconception that mail carriers and dogs are age-old nemeses. Naturally, most dogs are very protective of their family, their house, and their property. And since the mail carrier appears nearly every day, one can see why many dogs are suspicious.

However, contrary to popular belief, mail carriers — one mailman in particular, in this case — and dogs are not locked in a mutual hatred for all eternity. While initially most dogs appear very standoffish, a friendly attitude toward them on the part of the human can quickly demolish any barrier.

Take for example Boulder, Colorado, mail carrier Jeff Kramer and one black Labrador named Tashi. Several years ago, Kramer’s delivery route took him past Tashi’s house, and the two have been friends ever since.

“As fast as he could — which was not very fast — he ran up to me tail wagging, first day I met him,” Kramer recalls. “He’s just a really friendly dog. And I am a dog person, and they can tell.”

Their bond only continued to grow over the next few years. Every day, Tashi would wait eagerly for his friend, while Kramer always made sure to stop by the house to say “hi.”

“He would just come by every day and pet him,” said Tashi’s owner, Karen Dimetrosky. “Tashi would hang outside and would always get so excited when Jeff came. He would always try to pull me towards the mail truck.”

However, as the years have gone by, Tashi, now age 14 (or roughly 88 dog years!), has been moving much slower than he was before. His spirit is still that of a young pup though, and he would always get out of his bed when he heard Kramer arrive.

Tashi would make his owners carry him down the front steps so he could receive his daily belly rub. Dimetrosky said, “We were literally carrying him up and down the stairs. And he weighs about 70 pounds.”

When Kramer saw the trouble Tashi was having moving around, an idea came to him. “I didn’t realize how much trouble he was having until I saw them actually carry him up the stairs,” he said. “I remembered my dog having the same problem, and it’s sad.”

When Kramer’s dog, Odie, was having trouble climbing the front steps, he built Odie a ramp to make it easier on his old friend. He took the ramp down five years ago when Odie died, but he still had the wood and decided Tashi could use it.

Initially, he just dropped the unassembled wood off at the Dimetrosky’s, but it just sat there for a few months. “We’re not very handy,” Dimetrosky said. “I’m more handy than my husband, but I didn’t know how to put that together.”

With his heart aching from having to see Tashi watch him from the porch, Kramer visited on one of his days off to build the ramp. “When Jeff assembled the ramp on a Sunday and we came home and saw him out front, we were so grateful that he took time out of his life to do this for Tashi,” Dimetrosky said.

The ramp has not only allowed Tashi to walk out and see his friend, but his family no longer needs to lift the large dog up off the ground. They believe it has potentially prolonged Tahsi’s life!

“It has enabled the kids to take him out front also and given Tashi a sense of independence and dignity as an older dog,” says Dimetrosky. “Jeff is just a compassionate letter carrier who possesses a love for animals.”

Indeed, Kramer is not only a friend to Tashi but most of the other dogs on his route. “Most of them are now my friend,” he admitted. “In my opinion if you’re not a dog person and you’re a mailman, you’re in the wrong line of work. I’ve got about 30 or 40 that enthusiastically greet me,” Kramer claimed.

“Then I’ve got three or four that enthusiastically want to eat me,” he continued. I guess there are always a handful who just cannot bury the hatchet … or in this case, the bone.

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