While postmen are used to coming across the occasional threatening pooch when out on their route, most of them are thankfully all bark and no bite.
One bloke, however, was surprised to stumble upon a dog wielding an axe when he was out delivering the post - sharing a photo of the canine on Facebook.
According to WKYT, Tim Smith is a rural mail carrier in Williamsburg, Kentucky, who was out posting mail one day when he stumbled upon two dogs.
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He wrote: "Saw this on my mail route today. There's a lot of reasons why your mailman might not deliver your packages, and this is one of them.
"I can handle a dog, but not a dog with an axe."
In the photo, you can see the two dogs looking down at him ominously, one proudly displaying a massive axe in its mouth.
Smith's post has gone viral on Facebook, having racked up 45,000 likes, 14,000 comments and 236,000 shares.
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One person commented: "Oh wow! Dog thinks it's a toy!!"
Someone else said: "Good heavens! Imagine his jaw strength!"
Another wrote: "I wouldn't want to see that!!"
A fourth joked: "You interrupted them picking out their Christmas tree."
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WKYT reports that Smith said the dog is actually very friendly, and that he often spots him carrying around sticks.
Over in California, meanwhile, a man recently had a similarly unnerving encounter with wildlife - though this time it involved saving a dog rather than running away from one.
Kaleb Benham was at his home in Grass Valley when he heard a strange noise coming from the garden.
After going out to inspect the weird sounds, he saw his pitbull Buddy being dragged along by a brown bear.
Speaking to CBS, Benham said: "I heard a growl, looked about 75-100 feet down, and the bear was dragging him by his head, had his head in his mouth.
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"Honestly the only thing I could think of was 'save my baby'," Benham recalled.
"I just ran down there, plowed into the bear, tackled it and grabbed it by the throat and started hitting it in the face and the eye until it let go."
Despite being the night before Thanksgiving, Benham managed to find an animal hospital that was still open, and Buddy was rushed into surgery to receive staples and stitches, and had tubes inserted into his head to drain the fluid.
While some people may think he was stupid for trying to tackle a bear, Kaleb says he didn't even need to think about it.
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He added: "If it was your kid, what would you do? That's my kid, I would die for my dog."
Following the attack, a GoFundMe page was set up by Benham's sister Katelyn, to try and raise money to help her brother pay for Buddy's vet bills.
Featured Image Credit: Facebook/Tim Smith
Topics: News, US News, Animals, Dogs