Rachel Dancyg thought she had lost everything on October 7, 2023, when a violent attack hit Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel. As rockets fell and chaos spread, Rachel and her family hid in a safe room for eight hours. In the panic, her beloved dog Billie, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, went missing. Tragically, Rachel’s ex-husband and brother were taken during the attack and later killed. With no sign of Billie, Rachel believed her dog was also gone forever.
Months passed. The family relocated to northern Israel, trying to heal. Then, 18 months later, an unexpected phone call changed everything. A soldier returning from Gaza said he had found a dog in Rafah that wouldn’t leave his side—possibly because he was speaking Hebrew. The soldier took her to a vet, where a microchip confirmed it was Billie.
Rachel was in shock. Billie had survived all this time and somehow ended up in Gaza. Though thinner and a bit confused, she was finally home, curled up in Rachel’s lap.
The Nir Oz community called Billie’s return “a little light in a lot of sorrow”—a small moment of happiness after so much pain and loss.
On Wednesday, April 16, 2025, Rachel Dancyg held her dog Billie in Binyamina, Israel. Billie was found by Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip, 18 months after she went missing during the October 7 attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz. (Photo: AP/Ariel Schalit)
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