Full time letter carrier. Part time animal rescuer.

Full time letter carrier. Part time animal rescuer.

That’s a pretty accurate job description for Marsing, ID, Rural Letter Carrier Mara Ralls who gets high praise from two-legged and four-legged customers alike.

Rural Letter Carrier Mara Ralls
and a grateful Jewel.
Photo credit Bodie Clapier

During the nine years Ralls has worked for the Postal Service she also been the salvation of dozens of animals.

Her latest rescue was last month when she drove by a ranch and thought “Why is that horse leaning against a wire fence?” A glance in her rear view mirror told Ralls something was very wrong. She investigated and found a horse so severely tangled in fence wire – both smooth and barbed – that the wire was wrapped around the animal’s neck, chest, belly and upper legs.

She ran to the customer’s door but no one was home. She looked for a wire cutter, but had second thoughts about cutting a customer’s fence. So Ralls called for information, got the phone number for the customer’s mother five minutes later help arrived.

"There was a cavalry of four pickup trucks that roared up,” she said.

The wire was so tight around the horse that when the owner cut it, it snapped and cut his hand. The horse, which turned out to be a rodeo roping animal named Jewel, was unscathed with the exception of hair rubbed away by the wire.

This isn't her first go-round with helping animals. On another occasion, she heard a weak bleat coming from a customer’s yard and discovered a goat wearing a dog collar attached to a chain – and the chain was tightly twisted around the animal’s neck.

“The goat was choking to death, said Mara. “I got my scissors and cut off the collar. The goat ran into the back yard and I shut the gate.” Another time Mara roped a loose colt and “put it back in its pen with its mama.”

She’s told dog owners their pets were loose, a rancher that his cow was having a tough calving, and generally watched out for all the animals on her route.

“Animals only get what we humans give them,” said Ralls, explaining that she doesn’t mind being a second set of eyes for her customers, many of whom have jobs in addition to ranching and farming. She also keeps an eye out for her two-legged customers, especially the elderly.
Postmaster Don Cassity has good things to say. “Mara is very observant, which is a great quality for a carrier, and she obviously loves animals. She’s a very good letter carrier with many appreciative customers.”