Virginia mailman gives Christmas stockings to all dogs on his route
A Virginia mailman gave stockings to all the dogs on his route.
A Virginia mailman gave Christmas stockings to all the dogs on his route for Christmas 2020.
This heartwarming story was previously reported by the Washington Post.
Scott Arnold, who has been delivering mail for the US Postal Service in McLean for the past 38 years, has made it a Christmas tradition over the past quarter century, and this is quite a feat – he makes Christmas stockings for around 250 dogs each year.
According to Wikipedia, McLean is a Washington, DC suburb, and has about 55,000 residents, most of whom are connected to the government in some way.
Even more than most years, the Christmas stockings project was a labor of love this year – Arnold’s grown son Jason died in May of unknown reasons, and the neighbors in his community helped him get through an incredibly challenging year.
As if losing his son wasn’t bad enough, there were also numerous issues the US Postal Service had to fight through during the lead-up to the 2020 election, and then Arnold’s daughter’s Labrador passed away.
“I decided that doing the socks this year would be a good distraction from the sadness and a nice way honor Jason and Cash [his granddog],” Arnold told the Post.
So more than 250 puppers each got a personalized miniature Christmas stocking with their name painted on in festive-colored fabric paint, continuing a tradition that began with around 40 dogs in the late 1990s. Each stocking contained dog treats, photos of his pet Sheltie Milo and human grandsons, and an annual family newsletter update.
Excerpts of the letter included in the Washington Post story mention that there is a section welcoming the new dogs in the neighborhood by name, as well as saying goodbye to the dogs who moved over the past year or passed Over the Rainbow Bridge.
“The outpouring of caring and compassion from all was incredible and appreciated,” Arnold’s letter read in part, “It helped so much, and continues to help.”
His neighbors greatly appreciated the gesture, mentioning that Arnold sometimes drops off a Milk-Bone or two along with packages so that everyone gets to enjoy the delivery.
This act of mutual care and kindness is very much in the style of Dog Twitter, and is part of the reason we love the canine community. It is also shown somewhat in Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s children’s novel Shiloh, where Marty’s dad is a mailman in a rural community in West Virginia.
Next. Christmas 2020 goes well for the Dogs of Twitter. dark