When I saw a catalog with a device that keeps your lawn free of animals that leave their calling cards I had to send away for it.

This week I got it. With trembling hands I tore the box open. There it was. A solution to a problem that does not harm the animal. Just drives them away to your neighbors yard.

It is called Animal Away and it is a battery operated, motion detector device that emits a high pitched noise that only animals can hear. Imagine how high 25,000 Hz is? That is noisier than the music in most restaurants. And it works on any animal up to 45 feet away.

Humans can't hear it even with hearing aids. Wow, that is amazing.

Elsbeth thinks I am deaf because I frequently ignore her when she speaks. She can shout "sit up or roll over," or "down boy" and I never have chased after a stick when she yells "fetch." Maybe she just has to yell at a higher pitch. I may be part Airdale.

I have a friend who lives on Lake Burien and like most residents there he is not bothered by dogs.

He has Otters. They come up out of the salt water by following a creek that drains the lake and after eating the fat trout make themselves at home on the docks and boathouses. What they can do to a boathouse is indescribable in a family newspaper.

The Animal Away will even work on moles, I presume, but only if they have ears. Never having looked closely at a mole I can't say. But they do have to surface in front of the device so that may not happen.

It could be useful for tom cats that yowl outside your bedroom window or coyotes if you live in Bellevue.

I have a friend who has a Jaguar but I have never seen it on our lawn. He must keep it in his garage.

I have had it installed now for two weeks and can happily report I have had no problem with cows, grizzlies, giraffes or gorillas.

A sad note

When I heard Lettie Gavin Gudmestad had hit her final typewriter key I knew we had to have some special recognition for the work she did for the Highline Times as editor of the omen's section. I knew Lettie well. She was crusty, outspoken and cantankerous - and very talented.

Her editor was the highly esteemed Reid Hale who is now retired and living in Bothell so I called him and asked for some thoughts regarding the news of Letties demise. Here is his response.

"Jerry,

"In my 18 years as editor of the Highline Times, I never had a more unforgettable meeting of anyone than when Lettie Gavin stormed into my Highline Times office.

"She slapped the latest edition down on my desk and proceeded to tell me that the entire Women's section stunk. She proved it by going over each article, line by line.

"She informed me she had worked on the Detroit Free Press, came est with her husband, who had served in the Navy during World War II and left her to "rot" in a kitchen somewhere in Normandy Park. She told me to hire her before she killed him.

"I did, she didn't and she was the making of one of the best Women's Sections in all of the community newspapers in the state and she garnered enough awards to prove it. She later took her career to the Seattle P-I and I never ever had an editor like her, again. She could curse like a sailor, drank her whisky on ice and write up a storm.

"Lettie Gavin was a one of a kind. She broke free from being a housewife in a day when that took guts. She had them.

Reid Hale"

Jerry Robinson can be reached at publisher@robinsonnews.com