Tuesday's Internet Edition, January 06, 2009. Drug dog "Officer Bella" joins Teague Police Department OFFICER BELLA, K-9 AND OFFICER SOLLY, K-9 Handler are back in Teague after a two-week, 14 hour per day, training session at World Wide K-9 Training, Inc. in Spring Branch, Texas. The two officers graduated first in their class and received their Narcotics and Tracking Certifications. - Several months ago the Citizens of Teague were asked to help in the Teague Police Department's War on Drugs by contributing to the cost of a K-9 Unit that is used to detect illegal narcotics. As always the good people of Teague answered the call and we now have a fully trained K-9 Drug Unit. Corporal Shawn Solly has dedicated herself to the training and countless hours of personal time to be the handler for two year old K-9 Officer Bella, Badge #202. Bella, a sable German Shepherd, came to the United States from the Czech Republic and was stationed at World Wide K-9 Training, Inc. in Spring Branch, Texas. Officer Shawn Solly went to a 2-week, 14 hour per day, training school in order to learn to work with this remarkable dog. Officer Bella is trained to find and lead other officers to drugs and can even find the residual odor of drugs when they have been hidden in places. She was put to the test for several people at the police station where some confiscated marijuana was hidden. She was able to find the package and let her handler know the location of the drugs. Bella is also a trained tracker and can do people searches including lost children. She will be a great teaching tool and will be taken to schools for anti-drug seminars. "Bella actually picked me," said Officer Solly. She came to me and we worked perfectly together. In a class made up of entirely men Bella and I qualified first in both Narcotics and Tracking." Bella will be fitted with a bullet proof vest with the identifying word POLICE on it to let everyone know that she is an actual police officer. She will serve the regular amount of working time for a K-9 officer of eight or nine years before being retired. The Teague Police Department would like to thank Randy's Reflections for the time and labor they donated putting the decals on the police car that is the K-9 Unit. This is an on-line publication of The Teague Chronicle 319 Main Street P.O. Box 631 Teague, TX 75860 (254) 739-2141 For comments or questions, email us Publisher / Editor: Steve Massey steve@teaguechronicle.com. Front Page - Sports - Oil & Gas Report - Sheriff's Reportt - Library Report - Obituaries - Senior Citizens - Archive - Real Estate - Classified - Subscribe On-line publication, Copyright 2007, The Teague Chronicle. Web page design, Copyright 2007, EZ Edit Web Publishing.