MINNEOLA'S NEW DRUG-SNIFFING LABRADOR RETRIEVER WON'T BE CALLED 'FATT'

MINNEOLA - A good dog needs a good name.

So when the city recently shelled out $5,500 to acquire a
law-enforcement dog straight from the Czech Republic, officials were
a little put off by its assigned name: Fatt.

It didn't seem like a good identification for the 2-year-old yellow
Labrador retriever, which weighs in at a fit and trim 60 pounds.

That is why City Council members and the Lake County Sheriff's
Office now are looking for help from two schools to come up with a new name.

Classes at Minneola Charter and Grassy Lake elementary schools are
submitting ideas. The most popular suggestion will be the dog's new
name, and the class that is first to submit the winning name will
get a pizza party in return.

"The kids are so excited to have this opportunity," said Minneola
Mayor David Yeager, who lobbied for years to acquire the dog to
reduce crime. He joined the soon-to-be-renamed animal during a visit
to the schools last week.

The Sheriff's Office, which provides law enforcement in Minneola,
recently agreed to purchase the drug-sniffing dog using money that
Minneola has acquired from property seizures of illegal activities.
Sheriff's Lt. Greg Link said the canine was born in Eastern Europe,
where different litters are assigned names starting with the same letter.

Fatt came from the "F" litter, although Link said he does not know
whether that name has any meaning in another language.

The dog was transported to Texas and taught to sniff out illegal
drugs. A Lake deputy sheriff trained with the dog for about two
weeks, and the new team started in Minneola two weeks ago.

Minneola contracts with the Sheriff's Office to provide law
enforcement. The agency has 10 drug dogs, including one used at the
jail and two at schools.

Yeager said he originally requested that Minneola get its own dog
about seven years ago.

Drug searches could be valuable along U.S. Highway 27 -- one of the
county's busiest roads running through the middle of Minneola.

Yeager also pushed for Minneola to purchase a motorcycle to allow a
deputy to ticket speeders and to handle other traffic details. The
city paid $30,000 from drug seizures and related money for the motorcycle.

Recently city officials talked about one more addition for their law
enforcement -- a horse, to patrol Minneola's parks and trails.