Postal worker builds ramp for elderly dog on his route

A postal worker decided to help an elderly dog by building him a ramp.

ByABC News
March 31, 2017, 4:56 PM
Maddie Dimetrosky, 11, helps her dog, Tashi, get down the new ramp built by their mailman on Thursday in Boulder.
Maddie Dimetrosky, 11, helps her dog, Tashi, get down the new ramp built by their mailman on Thursday in Boulder.
Jeremy Papasso/Boulder Daily Camera via Storyful

— -- There's the old idea that dogs hate mail carriers, but there's no way Tashi the black lab hates USPS letter carrier Jeff Kramer.

Kramer, who has a mail route in Boulder, Colorado, sees Tashi often.

"Tashi would hang outside and would always get so excited when Jeff came," Tashi's owner, Karen Dimetrosky, told the Boulder Daily Camera. "He would always try to pull me toward the mail truck.”

However, Tashi -- who is now 14 years old -- started having trouble getting down the house steps. Kramer said he would often see the Dimetroskys carrying the 70-pound dog down them.

Kramer's dog, Odie, passed away five years ago. He built Odie a ramp as his health deteriorated, and the ramp had been sitting in Kramer's yard since Odie's passing. Suddenly, Kramer had a new purpose for Odie's old ramp, he said.

"I just noticed they needed it," Kramer told the paper. "I didn't need it anymore and I hate throwing things away."

So Kramer took the wood over to the Dimetroskys and installed the ramp for them.

"He's just amazing," Dimetrosky told the paper. "We've had the ramp for a few months and he's saved us."

Kramer said he can tell that Tashi is happy with his newfound freedom.