IDF Lone Soldier From North Suburbs Adopts K9 Partner

Unlike most Chicago area residents in their early 20s, D - a female Lone Soldier who is publicly referred to only by her first initial - is neither working nor in college. She is a staff sergeant serving in an elite K-9 Army unit in one of the world’s most dangerous war zones - what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) calls a “Lone Soldier,” a person who leaves his or her home, family and friends to join the IDF. She is no ordinary citizen.

Nor is Roni an ordinary house pet. He is a highly skilled combat veteran. D and Roni met during their army training and, over the course of a year, became inseparable — eating, sleeping, and working together. During last summer’s war in Gaza, the pair participated in some 50 missions and discovered numerous hidden terrorist weapons caches.

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So, when Roni was recently injured in the line of duty and discharged from the military, D decided it was best for her to adopt him rather than seeing him returned to a lonely existence in a military kennel.

D, who was in Chicago last month to speak at the Friends of the IDF (FIDF) Central Region Gala, has returned to continue her service overseas, but Roni is at his new home with her family in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Her family was more than happy to help until she gets back.

“As a father, I could have said no but opted to say yes,” D’s father said when asked why he chose to take in Roni. “It’s the kind of thing every good parent should do.”

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D calls Roni her “closest companion.”

She tells the story of how she and Roni saved countless lives inDecember she and her 4-legged partner were tasked to join an operating team in the West Bank.

“It was a night like many previous nights, another mission - we go in, we go out, swiftly and quietly,” D remembers. “After surveying the second floor of the house and not finding anything, I stood with Roni at the entrance to a room on the first floor. I tightened Roni’s work vest, I rolled up my sleeves, and I clicked his leash to his vest, we snapped into action. As we circled the room I noticed Roni was particularly interested in a disconnected toilet. I decided to scan the room a second time and, this time, Roni approached the toilet, got up on his hind legs and jumped in.

“While the troops around me cringed in disgust and laughed at the Roni’s toilet jump, I experienced a rush of adrenaline. There we were, he and I, doing what we do and doing it well. Something was not right in this empty toilet and I knew it.

“’There is something here,’ I shouted to the team commander. My shout snapped the soldiers back to reality, the laughter was gone. I cautiously pulled a heavy plastic bag out of the toilet, then ripped it open, finding30 shotgun shells inside. Later that night, I realized the importance of what Roni and I had done: those 30 shells could have claimed 30 innocent lives.”

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Joining the IDF nearly three years ago helped shape D as a person, she says.

“Today my family has increased to include my 15 sisters from my combat team,” she said. “And today, my closest companion is my four-legged partner, Roni.”

Tamir Oppenheim, Midwest Region Executive Director for FIDF, explains that ‘Lone Soldiers,’ a group that includes D, are from “all over the world.”

“Nearly 800 kids from the United States decide to go and serve,” he said. “We at FIDF are proud of their efforts and offer wellbeing programs for ‘Lone Soldiers’ serving in the IDF.”

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D, he said, is “one of those kids who decided to go to Israel, become a soldier and a dog handler in one of our top K9 units.”

“She had two options when Roni went injured - to have him stay in a caged unit for the rest of his life or bring him home. They brought him home and that is very compelling.”

The FIDF was formed by survivors of the Holocaust with the goal of supporting wellbeing and educational programs for Israel’s soldiers, Oppenheim said.

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