A customer’s Westie dog, Emmie, laid her head on the shoulder of retiring postmaster Dorothy Mathis, close to the same sentiment that the humans in Barnegat Light had shown during a tearful ceremony at the December borough council meeting.

(Photo by Jack Reynolds)

Emmie and other pups know Mathis keeps a jar of dog biscuits on a shelf by the piles of Christmas packages. It’s one of the extras that endeared her to patrons. Someone’s taller breed once scrambled onto the counter in its fervor to claim its treat.

Barnegat Light is distinctive. Everyone in the compact commercial fishing town must come to the post office on West…