EATING DAD'S PROZAC

letter published in the Globe this morning.
Yes, but how do you feel?
Re Antidepressants Little Better than Placebos (Life, Feb 27): I've been awaiting this study for years. When my father, upon confinement to a wheelchair, had angry outbursts, the medical answer was to give him Prozac. I substituted icing sugar in Dad's capsules and, out of curiosity took the Prozac myself. This seemed to give my father a bit more energy in his final years, but left wondering what personality changes I might experience. I'm still normal, I think.

Wondering Where The Lions Are

Those Bruce Colburn lyrics ran through my head as I entered the barnyard yesterday morning. Emma had been barking but I assumed at the new neigbours going to work. Suddenly I saw 2 animals running up and down the fence. Coyotes trying to get in? I ran back for the shot gun and after an effort to stick a shell in the barrel, I fired a shot over the invaders. Then I realized it was a pair of cougar cubs, one outside trying to get in and one inside trying to get out. How cute they were at about 20 pounds with dark brown spots, until I saw the damage. A ewe dead by the fence with tracks in the snow revealing a cat had been dragging her along the fence trying to get the carcass over he fence. I ran back to call Fish and Wildlife. This time they would believe me with a cougar cub trapped inside my fence. "We'll be right over," said Keith Linderman, the officer who set up a camera here last May to get a photo of my alleged cougar returning. By the time he and another officer arrived, the one cub had managed to climb the fence and escape with his sibling. Finally I realized the kitties' mother had to have been close by.. The officers cut into the ewe, took photos and showed me how a cougar kills. They bite into neck and sometimes crush a skull. They eat into the heart and lungs first, unlike coyotes who eats the leg of lamb first (as do I). We found another dead ewe in the barn. "Lucky," a ewe with one floppy ear post dogs attack a year ago, did not make it. The officers said they could track and kill the cougar if I wished but trapping her with such young cubs would not work. Or I could keep my animals LOCKED in the barn at night. I thought of the cute cubs, thought of my grandkids and elected for the latter choice. The guys drug my dead animals down into the field and returned with a chorus of coyotes in the air. We made out a claim form and it was over.
So glad l did not purchase 8 new eyes with lambs last week! With 6 ewes and Big Daddy the ram left we are assured of a few little lambs running around this summer (IF I keep them shut in every night. At first I could not get one llama, Rowdy, inside the barn and left him outside. One night he sounded the alarm shortly after dark. I stumbled out of bed and fired a shot in the dark. In the morning I found cat tracks showing the came back and would have had llama had Rowdy not made a racket. Now everyone must be in at night, no exceptions. We are under siege and somehow we don't mind it.

FATE OF MY MOTHER

Our Mother, Mary Cecilia was born in Cayley Alberta on Jan 5, 1912. She was the 2nd of 4 live children (three still born Kinney children lie in the old Catholic cemetery north of Nanton). Her father Wm Kinney came here from Illinois to homestead in 1905. Anna had followed him by train to Montana and ox cart to Cayley. She told her youngest son, Frank, of looking up at a sky full of geese to decide this must be a nice place. (Her sister, Margaret while visiting later, was repulsed all by the Montanans carrying guns). Wm Kinney suffered from depression and according to oldest son, Bernard committed suicide after three attempts. He was buried in the old Catholic cemetery and later moved by Bernard to the Catholic section of the current Nanton graveyard. (Why were the 3 children not moved?) Cecilia (11) and Bernard were sent to Lacombe Home which hurt her feelings since it was for orphans.. The Ketchums, a childless couple, offered to adopt Cecilia but she refused. (Cecelia sounded proud when relating this to us).. When she was a teen, her mother took her to visit a convent in Illinois. Anna and Aunt Margaret wanted Cecilia to stay and become a nun. Apparently Mother Superior looked out the window and saw Cecilia climbing a tree. She declared, "I see her as the mother of many boys." Thus was Cecealed (sic) the fate of our mother and the 7 sons and 3 daughters she bore here in Alberta.
Song (I can't get out of my head!) Mother Dear oh pray for me
Whilst far from heaven and thee
Till in Heaven eternally, they love and bliss I share
Postscript: When I was 13, Cecilia sent me to a Jesuit boarding college. They attempted to make me a priest. Years later when I confronted Mom on this, she admitted her intent, adding, "But I found you had a mind of your own! " Was her acceptance of my escape tempered by her own experience?