My dad didn't have much time for cats. We always had a few around the house when I was growing up. Whenever he caught one of them napping on the bed or on one of the couches he would spit out a "Sickatah!", and they would scramble. It just doesn't work on Israeli cats. I try Sickatah them and they just look at me with a sort of "is that all you've got?" look. South African cats were so much more polite.
Where does this sickatah come from anyway? Not even the internets knows. Voetsek! (generic Afrikaans version) works a bit better - the black cat that's scared of her own shadow will slowly move off, Syd and Nancy just open one eye and smile and then go back to sleep. There must be a Hebrew equivalent (Kishtah! perhaps).
Wet varnish
16 hours ago
2 comments:
I think it comes from the grandmother Judith, who also was not fond of cats. So maybe it's a yiddish,Polish word.
Remember how Joyce ( the maid) would scrap the meat knife on the back stairs and the cats would come running......
I Love Cats!
You can have all of ours.
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