Just got a cute little story about a police dog in Montana who could only understand Ivrit, not just any plain Hebrew. Ivrit! Well, how did this little dog end up in Montana?
Miky, pronounced Mikey, is in a Diaspora of his own. He was born in
an animal shelter in Holland and shipped as a puppy to Israel, where he
was trained by the Israeli Defense Forces to sniff out explosives. Then
one day, Miky got a plane ticket to America. Rather than spend the
standard $20,000 on a bomb dog, the Helena Police Department had shopped
around and discovered that it could import a surplus bomb dog from the
Israeli forces for the price of the flight. So Miky came to his new home
in Helena, to join the police force.
The problem, the officer explained, was that Miky had been trained entirely in Hebrew.
When
Officer Fosket got Miky, he was handed a list of a dozen Hebrew
commands and expressions, like “Hi’ sha’ er” (stay!), Ch’pess (search!),
and “Kelev tov” (good doggy). He made flashcards and tried practicing
with Miky. But poor Miky didn’t respond.
Officer Fosket (who is
not Jewish) suspected he wasn’t pronouncing the words properly. He tried
a Hebrew instructional audio-book from the local library, but no luck.
The dog didn’t always understand what he was being ordered to do. Or
maybe Miky was just using his owner’s bad pronunciation as an excuse to
ignore him. Either way, the policeman needed a rabbi.
To read more of the story, go
here.
