An Israel South Park Moment

Mossa'ei Shabbath Qodesh Parshath Ki Thavo 5766

There I was on a Friday, sitting in a park in the neighborhood of Nahla'oth, a Jerusalem neighborhood where I can rarely be seen (long story for another time), when I was disturbed from my relatively pleasant, Nahla'oth experience.

In Israel, we do not have annoying, semi-tame squirrels and pigeons which harrass the humans for their scraps. No. We have annoying cats and doves. Even though I am a cat-lover, I must admit that I, too, am annoyed by the wild cats. I am even very careful not to touch them for fear of ring-worm or other such FTD's (Feline Transmitted Diseases).

So, while I was eating my not so Mid-Eastern breakfast and trying to read, this little, black kitten, which could not have been more than six weeks old, started to rub up against my leg, and me'ow.

Almost without thinking, and I say almost because I could see this coming, I started to raise my voice at the kitten:

"No, Kitty! Those are my borekkas!"

That did not deter him, so a little louder, I repeated:

"NO, KITTY! Those are MY borekkas!"

But he just continued to me'ow,...just like Eric Cartman's Kitty on the hit cartoon show "South Park."

I started to laugh, because of the absurdity of what happening. People passing by surely thought I crazy, both for laughing and for not chasing away the kitten more effectively. Nonetheless, I didn't want the episode to end. Afterall, we fans have been having to wait many moons for the next, new episode of "South Park" (Uh-hum), due to this bizarre break in the middle of the season (hint, hint). Go figure....

Thus, the episode continued....

"NO, KITTY! Those are MY borekkas and ice mocha!" "NO, KITTY!

But, this tiny kitten had such hutzpah (nerve/gaul), it started to climb onto the park bench where I was sitting. Imagine!

Soon after I scared the kitten away from its fifth attempt at climbing up onto the park bench, I got up to leave, believing that I had something more important to do.

Then it really hit me. There are two parks in Nahla'oth, one in the north, and one in the south.

You guessed it. I was in the park in the south, the "south park."