I live in Martinez and I love the beavers.

This story in our paper today by Lisa White did give me pause, though.

The group trying to keep the critters’ downtown home intact while the city shores up the banks of Alahambra Creek says they want to buy a “heat-seeking laser device.” They want to use it to track the beavers’ location during the work.

Can just anybody buy a “heat-seeking laser device?” It sounds like an item you’d need a high security clearance to own and you’d go to prison if you sold it to foreign governments.

I typed “heat-seeking laser device” into eBay and all I got was heat transfer paper.I Googled it and ended up with a lot of scary sounding heat-guided missile stuff. I put the terms in Google Shopping and found laser hair-removal, which the beavers probably wouldn’t like so much.

Hmmm.

This sounds like a task for the four City Council candidates, incumbents Mark Ross and Janet Kennedy and challengers Bradley Jackson and Mike Alford. If the candidate does find one, he or she could even claim it as a campaign expense … just don’t buy it from a foreign government.