Pardon me while I interrupt the next round of letters to the editor firing back at Millie "don't ever call me Mildred" Hayes.

Not since Arfee, the dog that was shot and killed last summer in Coeur d'Alene by police, has the opinion pages of The Press and cdapress.com lit up with the same subject.

Millie, a single 79-year-old Post Falls resident, set off a series of explosions with her Nov. 16 letter stating that she likes "practically nothing" about Post Falls.

The wind, snow, right to work and a lack of department stores and medical specialists close by are among just a few of the reasons why she misses her beloved California.

The first returned fire from letter writers was shock and outrage. Kootenai County residents defend their home turf like they defend their freedoms.

Then other reactions sprouted.

Perhaps Millie was just being silly and would say anything to get our goat. Maybe Millie isn't even from California or, for that matter, maybe she doesn't even exist. After all, who would ever say anything bad about our outdoors paradise?

When I was in a grocery store checkout line the other day, I overheard a lady tell another shopper, "Have you been reading all of those letters about Millie in The Press? You know, I wonder if The Press made that Millie letter up just to stir things up like it does every year with that April Fool's story that always catches me by surprise."

I felt compelled to interject, identify myself and assure the woman that we wouldn't be that naughty just before Christmas.

That moment - and a corresponding nudge from our editors - made me realize that our readers have the right to know that there's a real person behind Millie's hand-written letters. They also deserve to know why she'd ever think of complaining about this beautiful area we call home.

So I went knocking.

What I found at Millie's home wasn't the Grinch. With a warm smile, she welcomed me in her home that's decorated for the holidays.

"I'm not at all miserable," she said. "I'll adjust because I don't have a choice. I'm making the best of the situation."

The situation is that she moved here from Westminster, Calif., in 2011. She moved - like many Californians and others have - to live near family members.

And Millie ain't going anywhere. She's here with us to stay.

"I sold my home in California," she said. "These people (letter writers) say they'll pay my gas to go back, but where am I going to go? It's just not financially feasible for me to go back."

Millie said she was well aware that it snows here before she moved up, but the pile of other circumstances that she could live without came as surprise.

"Supposedly the income level here is very low, but if you call somebody to service your heater, you'll pay $400," she said. "In California, two ladies took mine apart, cleaned it and it didn't cost me a dime."

The wind blew so hard here the other night that her outdoor chairs would've even blown across her yard had it not been for a planter in the way, she said.

"The wind you have here is horrible," she said. "We get our Santa Anas (in California), but they're nothing like this."

Millie was floored when she learned it would cost her $6 per month to have her garbage wheeled out to the curb due to her having a bad back.

"In California, that's free," she said. "People here get taken advantage of."

And how about snow - that near-guarantee during any North Idaho winter?

"This winter I could do without it," she said. "I'm a California girl. I don't drive in the snow."

She said she complains not to rile people up, but hopes to bring positive change to the area. All she is doing, she said, is stating her opinion.

"I fight for things that are for the good of other people," she said.

She's amazed that fields around Post Falls can be left full of weeds.

"In California, we'd never allow that," she said. "The owners would be forced to clean it up. I haven't contacted code enforcement, but I probably will."

When someone was parking in front of her neighborhood mailboxes - a nuisance for mail carriers - Millie was dumbfounded at who showed up to help.

"I let one of the older (police) volunteers have it and said, 'Why wasn't a real cop sent here?'" she said. "But he got it done and the vehicle hasn't been back since."

Millie said she was "blown away" at the onslaught of letters that her opinions have generated.

"It was kind of upsetting, really," she said of some of the responses. "I didn't involve other people (with the letter), but they're injecting their opinions of me directly. I did not expect personal attacks on my personal opinion of life here."

Millie said she's only been so apt to publicly state her opinion since her second divorce.

"I'm just an independent person who wants to stay that way," she said.

She's kept a pile of newspapers with the letters to respond to some writers. She cherishes the few letters that have supported her.

"I'm happy to see somebody feels the way I do, that these feelings aren't just those of some old, stupid lady," she said.

Millie said she'll continue to respond to writers when she "has to" and remarks become personal. Otherwise, she sees the exchanges as tapering on her part.

"The stamps are getting expensive," she said with a smile. "I don't have the postage to respond to all of them. But I admire opinions as long as they're not mean-spirited or personal."

Meanwhile, Millie will stand proud to be a Californian.

"I haven't run into anybody who has been negative toward me being from California," she said. "I would've kept my California license plate and driver's license if I could have."

After I'd won Millie's trust during our chat, I asked her if she'd mind having her photo taken to run with this column.

She kindly declined and said, "Somebody is liable to recognize me. It's a small world. I don't want people to egg my house or throw rocks at the window."

Millie admits the letter exchanges have been enlightening and even sometimes healthy.

"It's been kind of fun ... in a way," she said. "I've expressed my opinions and they've expressed theirs."

Brian Walker, a Press reporter, isn't pretending to be a referee in this bout. But he hereby declares that Millie does exist and is not the subject of another April Fool's joke in The Press.