Several years ago in Boulder, Colorado, mail carrier Jeff Kramer’s delivery route took him past black Labrador Tashi’s house. 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,” Jeff 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 Jeff 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 Jeff pull up.
Tashi would make his owners carry him down the front steps so he could get his daily belly rub. Karen said, “We were literally carrying him up and down the stairs. And he weighs about 70 pounds.”
When Jeff 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.”
On one of his days off, Jeff went by and built a wonderful ramp!