By Buck Wolf

Jan. 24, 2001 — There's a new top dog in Washington. She has a presidential pedigree, and may even find some old bones buried in the White House lawn. Roll over, Buddy Clinton. It's time to see Spot run.

New First Pet Spot Fletcher Bush can hold her shaggy head high as the new canine in chief at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Sure, she'll have to nominally share her mantle with a Scottish terrier pup named Barney and a black short-haired cat named India. But there's no doubt who is the alpha dog in this animal house.

Spot in the Spotlight

Spot is the proud daughter of Millie Bush, whose dog-eyed account of White House life, Millie's Book, became a best seller, raising nearly $1 million for literacy programs. In fact, the autobiography (as told to then-first lady Barbara Bush) outsold the elder President Bush's memoirs.

At the height of her fame, Millie graced the cover of Life magazine, and George Bush pere had a dog biscuit dispenser shaped like a gumball machine at Camp David.

But life in the White House is not all caviar and kibble. The 11-year-old English springer spaniel will have to watch her tail. Mama Millie, who passed away, could have told her that. Washingtonian magazine once voted Millie the "Ugliest Dog" in the city.

Yeah, there is pressure on the pets to stay in line and make the president look good. The new first family had a second cat, an orange-and-white six-toed feline named Ernie, who has been relocated to Los Angeles.

The Bush family is giving no official explanation for the kitty's apparent demotion. But insiders say he was a little rough on the furniture. India is declawed.

The other dog moving into the White House, Barney, was a Christmastime gift from New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman, who has been nominated to head the Environmental Protection Agency. The pup is the offspring of her Scottie, Coors (named after the beer).

If competing with Spot isn't enough, Barney will be pressured to compete with the most famous presidential pet of all, Franklin Roosevelt's Fala, another Scottish terrier. Roosevelt took Fala everywhere. Roosevelt once even boasted that he had a naval destroyer fetch the pooch when Fala was accidentally left behind on the Aleutian Islands.