YORKY CLUB MAGAZINE #8 -- November 2007

"Noah's Ark" by Ricky Cohen

Life in Israel, where I was born and raised, provided me the tools to deal with varied aspects of war or terror attacks, but nothing prepared me to face non-conventional threat. This type of threat was for me kind of science fiction which I watch only in apocalyptic movies. In summer 1990, after the invasion of Iraq to Kuwait, the United States gave an ultimatum to Iraq’s president - Sadam Husein, to withdraw his troops from Kuwait till a given date otherwise the U.S. will attack Iraq. Sadam Husein announced that if the U.S. will attack Iraq, its allies – like Saudi Arabia and Israel, will be attacked by ground-to groundmissiles. Since Sadam Husein had used chemical weapons against Kurds, he had already passed the psychological limit of using this type of weapon against human being, and nothing could prevent him from do it again. Therefore, the state of Israel did not take any chances and started to prepare the citizens against chemical attack, including distribution of A.B.C. kits and instructions for preparing sealed rooms with sheets of nylon and masking tapes.

The citizens were prepared, but we did not have any solution for the protection of our pets. The first missile attack on Israel in January 1991, made the fear tangible, a fear that I have never felt before: the fear from the unknown.
According to a research that I had made during the time before that war, I found out that the only thing I could do for my pets, was to take them with us into the sealed room, which I did of course, but I still was bothered from the fact that we have A.B.C. kits and they don’t.
At that time I had only 3 dogs – Sandy (3 years old Yorkie), Tiana (4 months old puppy – Sandy’s daughter) and Apache Chief (2 years old Belgium shepherd). The sirens and the blowups that came after it became part of our lives – kind of a daily routine for about 2 months. Whenever a siren was heard, Sandy was the first to run into the sealed room and we followed her, except Apache Chief which had to be towed – he hated this room. During all this time my thoughts were: what I’m going to do with my pets if and when…

Fortunately the war was over without using non-conventional weapons by Sadam Husein. We took off the sheets of nylon and the masking tapes from the windows and the room returned to its previous function. We put the A.B.C. kits in the wardrobe together with our traumatic experience and returned back to normal life. Only Sandy kept running to the room whenever a siren was heard in the radio, years after the war.

12 years later, my children grew up and left home, Sandy became aged and her hearing was weak and breeding of Yorkies became a way of life for me. At that time we live with 16 Yorkies and 3 puppies of Isr. Ch. Bluesete of Bney Or. At the beginning of the year 2003, the U.S.A. decided to release Iraq from the rule of Sadam Husein and the preparation for the invasion had begun.
In Israel we started to prepare ourselves again for a nonconventional attack, and the questions concerning the protection of my pets came up again. I tried to check with the army, talked to veterinarians and asked people in few forums in the internet, but no solution. Until one day when my husband came with the magic solution - “Noah’s ark”.
It took us seconds to decide, and another few minutes to order it. Our “Noah’s ark” is a blue transparent tent, which it’s size is like a small room and it included air filtration system, electric outlet which can be used for radio, laptop etc., a rechargeable battery that provides 10 hours operation of the air filtration system, in case of interruption of electric power as well as manual blower as additional backup. Here is the place to mention that this system was developed and is produced by a small community of religious Christians from Germany who settled in a town south of Haifa about 40 years ago, and believe that at the end of days Israel will be the most safe place to be at, and therefore their mission is to support Israel. The name of their enterprise is “Beth-El-Zichron Yaakov Industries Ltd”.

When the system arrived, we decided to set up the tent in my study room. We did it immediately, although we were not yet told by the authorities to do it, in order to accustom the dogs to it - I did not want to bring them into it for the first time only when we will be under missiles attack. We put blankets on the floor to make it soft and comfortable for the dogs, box of mineral water bottles, a new and sealed sack with dog food, toys for the dogs, some conserves and other items we thought we might need to stay there for few days. At that night I slept well. I did not know what is going to happen, but I knew that I have done what ever I could to protect my dogs in case of non-conventional attack.
And so, every day the dogs played in the tent, until the authorities announced that the threat is over and we can back to routine. Our “Noah’s ark” is stored now in its original boxes; we maintain it and charge its battery persistently, hoping we shall never need to use it again.

Are we? The next quote from a newspaper in September 2007 shows that we can continue hoping but must be realistic and keep maintaining our “Noah’s ark”: “Six hundred Iranian Shihab- 3 missiles are pointed at targets throughout Israel, and will be launched if either Iran or Syria is attacked, an Iranian website affiliated with the regime reported on Monday.”

“Iran will shoot at Israel 600 missiles if it is attacked,” the Iranian news website, Assar Iran, reported. “600 missiles will only be the first reaction.” According to the report, dozens of locations throughout Iraq, which are being used by the US Army, have also been targeted. The Shihab missile has a range of 1,300 km, and can reach anywhere in Israel.”