On just about every day of the year, Shadow and Custer enjoy a hearty diet of kibbles and the occasional leftover piece of challah or gefilte fish.
But come Yom Kippur Tuesday evening, these dogs — Shadow’s a 16-pound poodle, Custer, a 26-pound schnauzer — follow the lead of their owner, Cheryl Degani: They fast.
“It was my idea,” says Degani, a 59-year-old accountant from suburban New City and mother of two adult children.
Growing up in the Rockland County town of Hillcrest, she was always a little more zealous than everyone around her, she says, and began fasting on the Day of Atonement even before her bat mitzvah, at age 12.
“People say, ‘Are you kidding me? Are you for real?’ ” she says of her decision to have her dogs observe the holiday with her. “I say: I have to fast, they have to fast.”
Those concerned about whether fasting affects her pets’ health can bark off, Degani says.
“I can leave my dogs food all day long, but if I’m not there, they’re not eating it,” says Degani, who nevertheless makes sure her pups’ water bowls are never empty. “Dogs are social — a dog doesn’t want to eat until I get home and I’m there.”
It’s kosher with the experts, too.
“If you have an otherwise healthy dog, then it’s probably not a huge deal,” says Dr. Danielle Palatt, of Brooklyn’s Vinegar Hill Veterinary Group. “Missing two meals isn’t necessarily a health risk for a healthy animal — even if they don’t understand what’s going on.”
But they do understand, insists Degani, whose dogs are fluent in fasting. They know the drill for many Jewish holidays, she says, and believes they definitely smell something in the air just before Yom Kippur.
“I think they have a Jewish essence,” she says. “There’s no doubt about it.”
They may not have been bark mitzvahed, she adds, but they feel religion down to their Milk Bones: “They know a lot. They know something [is going on]” on the big day.
Well, let me tell you what happened with my doggy, Shegundaleh, when I tried to take Ms. Degani's advice and tried to make my doggy fast.
ReplyDeleteIt came about 4PM when I normaly feed her, but l decided to lay down on my sofa because I developed a migraine from lack of food.
Well my Shegundaleh somehow sensed that I was doing something not too smart, (maybe trying to commit suicide -- that's the way dogs think, you know !) and grabbed her waterbowl in her teeth, jumped on the sofa and hit me on the head with it to try to shock me back to reality.
Now, I was so startled, I thought I was being attacked by a burglar and grabbed my heavy steel back scratcher lying on my lamp table and swung it at my attacker with all my might.
I'm sorry to tell you that I caught Shegundaleh right on the left side of her her face. I rushed her to my veternarian, even though it was Yom Kipur but it was Pikuach Nefesh for my beloved Shegundaleh. My vet told me that she died of a cerebral hemorhage. He didn't believe my story about the water bowl and backscratcher and accused me of animal cruelty.
I couldn't believe how quickly the police showed up at his office, but they were almost as quick arresting me on misdemeaner charges of extreme animal cruelty. Meanwhile, the vet's animal-rights secretary became so infuriated at my actions which she told a local T. V. station amounted to pet manslaughter, that I faced a T.V. crew and was forced to do a perp walk for the cameras as I arrived at the police precinct.
The animal rights people became enraged and began picketing my house just after I arrived home after posting $15,000 bail. The D.A. had demanded no bail at all because he was a animal rights nut too and all the publicity , but my public defender convinced the judge that the events leading to Shegundaleh's unfortunate demise could have been an accident and he let me out on reasonable bail. Besides, the judge was a dog lover and knew my husband was incapable of caring for our other 6 pets and 1 snake all by himself. (Feeding our pet python was not a chore for one person alone !)
Well, I'm sorry to say that I arrived at my home from the court house to see more than 20 animal right's pickets and this was just after Ne'eilah when everyone was coming home from shul. All my neighbor's got angry at me for killing my dog on Yom Kipur. Word Spread that I tried to sacrifide her for my sins.
Now I am shunned and have to move from my neighborhood in Lakewood, N.J.
I was told to move to Israel where nobody would know of the accusation against me of ritual animal sacrifice on Yom Kipur. I can't do it because Israel won't let me in with the snake.
I'm thinking of moving to Williamsburg and becoming a Satmar. I think that I'll fit right in there.
Your blog highlights just how much dogs are in tune with their owners and take on the individual characteristics of their owner's lifestyle, with an empathy that's not found in other animals. As family members, it's quite right that your dogs should fast with you on Yom Kippur. In the photo, they look to be a very happy, healthy pair.
ReplyDeleteElvira Mullins @ Anne Nelson Vets