Another Way to Save the USPS?

We’ve all heard stories about the failings of the U.S. Postal Service and things like World War II-era letters being delivered 60 years too late and we tend to scoff and shake our heads.

Of course those stories do nothing to enhance the USPS’s image at a time when it’s flat broke and many are calling for cutting back on delivery days and shuttering postal facilities.

But here’s one with quite a different twist.

According to KSDK-TV in St. Louis, a central Massachusetts woman named Ruth intentionally had mail sent to her dog for nearly 30 years.

And the dog has been dead for 20 of those years, too.

Back in the early 1980s she called the phone company and asked if she could change the name of her bill to a family member. Only she didn’t mention the family member was Jasper, her mixed breed pooch.

Since the phone company rep didn’t ask if the family member was human the rep changed the listing.

Over the years, hundreds of mailers swamped Jasper with a myriad of offers.

Now Ruth feels it’s her duty to keep this up, if only to keep the USPS in business.

Her reasoning: if mailers still want to spend money on direct mail let them keep filling the USPS coffers so the postal service won’t have to close down facilities.

If only it were so simple.