Dogs really do bite mail carriers - a lot of them.
According to the US Postal Service, which released its annual report on the topic, 6549 postal workers were attacked by dogs in 2015, an increase of 14 per cent from the year before.
The posties of Houston, who already must contend with humidity and a lack of pavements, seem to have it particularly rough. Dogs attacked 77 of them last year, making the city America's top spot for such run-ins.
Mail carriers make up a relative drop in the bucket of the 4.5 million or so people bitten by dogs each year, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Most are children, and most of the canine assailants are familiar to their victims. But an increase in deliveries of online purchases means more postal workers are coming face-to-face - or ankle-to-snarling mouth - with dogs.