During the October 7 terror attack at the Nova music festival, Eden Zecharya had only one request. As she fled from Hamas gunfire, she shouted her last words to her father over the phone: “They’re shooting at us—it’s close. Take care of the dogs.”
“She didn’t ask for help, didn’t beg for her life—just that we protect her dogs,” her mother, Orin Gantz, said.
Eden was kidnapped to Gaza and later murdered in Hamas captivity. Her body was recovered in a military operation. But even while she was still held hostage, her family did everything they could to fulfill her last wish—to care for her two beloved Vizslas, Ted and Kaya.
At first, her father, Zohar, moved into Eden’s home to care for the dogs himself. “Looking back, I’m not sure it was the right move,” Gantz says. “The sadness was overwhelming. It affected the dogs too.”
She recalls visiting them during Eden’s captivity: “Ted, who used to have a brown coat, had turned completely white. The trauma aged him.”
Eventually, Zohar’s sister reached out to Gantz. “We need to find a better solution,” she said. So she posted on social media, hoping someone could help.
“The response was overwhelming,” she recalls. “I needed two extra people just to help me sort through the calls and messages. Everyone wanted the dogs.”
One phone call, one new family
Among the many callers, one stood out—Elinor from Kibbutz HaOgen. “I heard her voice on speakerphone while I was in another room and immediately started crying,” Gantz remembers. “I don’t cry easily. That’s when I knew—Eden chose this family.”
Elinor offered to take both dogs, not wanting to separate them. Gantz accepted instantly. “The next thing I knew, I was already there with the dogs. And since then, we’ve become one family.”
Shared custody, shared grief
“Have you ever heard of shared custody—for dogs?” Gantz later wrote in a Facebook post.
“Eden fled Nova with her boyfriend, Ofek Kimchi. At Mefalsim Junction, their car was ambushed. Ofek was murdered. Eden was kidnapped. Just before disappearing, she told her father: ‘They’re shooting at us... take care of the dogs.’ That was her will.”
Eden had raised Ted and Kaya like children—healthy food, long walks, playtime and love. “When she was gone, we were left with the dogs—and a shattered heart.”
At first, her father tried to care for them. “But the grief was too heavy. The dogs sensed it. They fell into depression.”
Gantz, who lives in a small apartment and travels constantly to speak at memorials and events, didn’t feel she could take them in either.
But then came Elinor, her husband Shoval and their three children, who had recently lost their own Vizsla to illness. “They didn’t know Eden, but I’m sure Eden knew them. I believe she sent them to us.”
Now, Ted and Kaya live freely at the kibbutz. “Everyone knows them—they’re Eden’s dogs,” Gantz says. “And we’ve become one big family. Not a formal weekly schedule, but holidays, meals, hugs, shared expenses. Tonight, we’re all going to Shabbat dinner together. The dogs will run between us, just like Eden would’ve wanted.”
A living memory
In an interview with Ynet, Gantz explained why she still sees the dogs regularly. “They let us be part of their lives. Their kids—Alona, Yoav and Yael—treat the dogs like siblings. And Elinor and Shoval care for them the exact way Eden did.”
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“We share the costs,” she adds. “At first, they didn’t want us to, but I told them—it’s not for you. It’s for Eden.”
When asked if she sees herself as a kind of grandmother to the dogs, Gantz smiles: “Exactly. They’re children with tails. When I look at them, I see Eden. It’s the most living reminder I have of her.”
The kibbutz embraced the dogs—and Eden’s story. A local article was even published about her. “Everyone here treats them like Eden was everyone’s daughter, not just mine,” Gantz says. “They all know the story.”
'She’d say: You did well'
“If Eden could peek down from above,” Gantz says, “she’d tell me: ‘Mom, this is exactly the place I wanted. I’m at peace knowing the dogs are here.’”
“I don’t just believe she’s with them—I know it. I know she’s with the dogs and the children, watching over them. And I know she’s proud.”
First published: 19:29, 07.30.25