The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge will welcome a new officer in a couple months. There's only one problem. He still needs a name.
"His name currently is Thomi. But we wanted something, his name to be more meaningful," said Leah Eskelin, visitor services park ranger at the refuge.
We should mention that Thomi is a dog. A 14-month-old Dutch shepherd, previously from Belarus and currently being trained in Michigan. He will be the new K9 unit for refuge law enforcement, allowing the previous refuge K9, Rex, to retire. Rex gets to live the easy life with his handler, Officer Rob Barto, but Barto needs a new partner on the job.
He goes to Michigan to meet Thomi in a week or two and needs to have a new name ready for training. The refuge is asking for suggestions from the public.
“It needs to have some kind of Kenai Peninsula reference, some connection to the Kenai, and it's best if it's one or two syllables. You don't want something super long that's hard to call out," Eskelin said.
The name should be somewhat unique, as well.
“Think of those things that are quintessentially Kenai but not where if you call it across the parking lot, eight different animals or people circle around and look at you," Eskelin said.
When Officer Barto and the soon-to-be-renamed Thomi return, they will have their work cut out for them.
"Our dogs are used to help our officers in wildlife detection, tracking, searching for lost people and then basic patrol. Our current dog, for example, is really talented in being able to find the very smallest bits of evidence out in a really large field or forest. Their sense of smell just exceeds anything that we could dream about," Eskelin said.
The deadline to enter a name suggestion is 5 p.m. Saturday. Names can be dropped off at the refuge visitors center on Ski Hill Road in Soldotna by closing time Saturday or mailed to kenai@fws.gov. The winner will get a K9 challenge coin and a meet-and-greet with the newly named pup when he gets to his new post at the refuge.
