Military Working Dogs Forever First Class Postage Stamps

German shepherd, Labrador retriever, Dutch shepherd, Belgian Malinois. The four breeds that serve alongside the American armed forces, each rendered as a stylized geometric illustration rather than a portrait. The booklet of 20 runs them in blocks of four. The stamps were first sold at the American Philatelic Society show in Omaha. The geometry is a reasonable choice: these are working animals, and the flat planes keep the set from sliding into pet photography.

Military working dogs are raised and trained for the job, and they deploy alongside soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen and the Coast Guard. The mail that carries these stamps reflects that - veterans' organizations, handler associations, K-9 and military charity fundraising, letters to and from service members. They also do fine on ordinary correspondence for anyone who likes dogs and dislikes twee ones. The four breeds on the stamps are the ones that actually deploy, not a sampler of dogs somebody liked.