My name is Stav and I’m a student at Hebrew University Agricultural campus in Rehovot. My partner Raz is also studying there. We’re raising puppy Hannah together. She is five months old now. Due to the war, Raz has been called up to reserve service.
I’ve been able to speak with him from time to time–he is okay thankfully. Raz is himself from the Aza Border area. Miraculously his village was spared and his family are all safe. I was raised on a Kibbutz Yakum. University studies have been suspended since the war broke out, so part of my time has been spent helping to locate missing persons. I worked for a government branch where I gained some useful tech skills, so I’ve been using my knowledge to help.
One of our visits was to Shafaim, where evacuated families from the south and north were sheltering in a hotel there. That initiative was organized by the Adoptive Puppy Raising Families. We started a WhatsApp group amongst ourselves when the war broke out. You asked me why I, and why we do these things—it is obvious to all of us—because we care and we want to help others, to support them. There were many Puppy Love Encounters going on in various sites and cities; all with our fellow puppy raising families. There was a little boy named Eitan, who strongly connected to Hannah. He was so enthralled with her that he would not leave her side. He walked around everywhere with her. You could see that Hannah was also attentive to and aware of this little boy’s needs and connecting with him.
The other day, I visited Ichilov Hospital with Hannah along with other puppy raisers and their puppies. The visit was coordinated by the Kibbutz Movement. In the hospital, there was the father of one of our friends from a kibbutz that had been attacked by Hamas terrorists. He was injured and doctors had put him in an induced coma. They were hiding in the safe room for over 17 hours with their pet dog. Both they and even the dog did not make a sound. They heard everything; all the terrorists outside. When they were finally rescued, only then, their dog started to bark.
The most moving thing that I can share with you that occurred during that hospital visit, was that when Hannah touched this friend’s father who was unconscious and lying in bed, the father woke up.
