‘To home a rescue dog is a wondrous thing – it enriches your own life, and utterly transforms theirs’

TV presenter and explorer Monty Halls celebrates his life-changing partnership with rescue dog Reuben.

As I drove away from the rescue centre with nine-month-old Reuben peering at me, his expression said it all – ‘I’ve no idea where we’re going, or what we’ll do when we get there, but I just know it’ll be fantastic. I’m with you all the way, big man.’

And so it proved. My times with Reubs were some of the most rewarding of my life as he was with me constantly, a great, benign, loyal presence. Our first home was a ruined bothy in Applecross Bay, north-west Scotland, where I went to live as a crofter for six months in the first of my three Great Escape series for the BBC.

The next six months saw a rare bond develop between us, as he developed into a full-blown, magnificent dog. I would marvel constantly at his athleticism and strength as he raced across the beach outside the bothy, his paws touching down every ten feet or so, leaving tiny puffs of sand in his wake.

A tectonic event in anyone’s life is the arrival of children, and I was particularly sensitive to how Reuben would react to the arrival of my daughter Isla in 2011. How would he deal with a new and allconsuming presence in the family?

These fears proved entirely groundless. The moment we brought Isla home, Reubs gave her a sniff, a gentle lick, and settled beneath her crib with a deep sigh. He slept outside her room from that point on. On my travels it was always a profound comfort to know that Reubs was on duty as my family slept, filling a role as old as the relationship between people and dogs itself. Any noise outside the house would be met by a growl. Reuben was watching over his girls.

As Isla grew, soon to be joined by her sister Molly, Reuben was a constant presence in their lives. They learned to walk by holding onto his fur and were the only people I ever knew who he would allow to take a ball or stick from him, dropping it at their feet from those terrible jaws. I seldom saw him happier than when he was with the whole family.

Sadly nothing is forever and Reuben was diagnosed with heart disease, and the time came to put him to sleep aged nine.

Reuben, it was my privilege to know you. Thank you for being my friend, my guardian, my confidant. Thank you for looking after my girls when I was away, and in doing so helping me sleep more easily on my travels. And thank you for making me laugh every day.