Some cat-nap: Negev man subdues wild leopard

Israel abounds with unlikely heroes, such as Arthur Du Mosch, the Dutch immigrant dad who used his bare hands to subdue a wild leopard for 20 minutes and so rescued the household kitty from its jaws.

The male leopard apparently slunk in through a window left wide open so night breezes might cool the house near Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev desert.
There was wide sympathy for the scrawny and elderly wildcat whose arthritic joints hampered hunting and reduced it to eating dried pet food, and then pets. And photos of the nature guide in his underwear, wrestling with the spotted cat got wide play. Click here to watch the bedroom struggle. Only about ten wild leopards are left inside Israel, including this malnourished male.

But tell a man on the street in Jerusalem a beastly tale and it inevitably gets a political twist. Hence this letter in today's Jerusalem Post

How Israeli!

Sir, - "Wild leopard pays late-night cat-call" (May 29) reminded me of Israel's approach to terrorists.

In the incident, the nature guide grabbed the leopard around the neck and pinned it down for 20 minutes until the authorities arrived. Once the leopard was in captivity, the nature officials were assessing its health and planning to feed it sufficiently to help it "put on some weight" and then, once it was in good shape, "to release him back into the wild."In our jails we have 10,000 "beasts" who make every effort to destroy innocent Jewish lives. Our special IDF units capture and incarcerate these murderers with great daring and risk to their own lives. During their sojourn the terrorists are provided with exemplary medical treatment to restore their health. But then, in short order, the unrepentant assassins are released so they can have still one more opportunity to accomplish their nefarious missions.

Give me patience!

ROBERT DUBLIN
Jerusalem

The listless leopard gets a spot check from veterinarians before his release to a nature reserve, reuters photo