Brin had a few visits planned to say thankyou to the people who had helped to raise fund to get him home and so off we set to meet the children at my school who had followed his journey and were so excited to know he had made it home.

I had used his story as part of a lesson I was teaching them about animal welfare. There was to be a debate about whether animals should be used in war, rescues and security.

This debate proved really interesting as they spoke about the reality of situations, through research, far beyond their experiences, thank god.

The outcome was that animals should be used if it meant the saving of a human life.

Brin had saved lives without any specialist training of course. This is what made his story that more remarkable. He knew where the dangers where just by having to survive everyday. People say that they wished their animals could speak but in Brin’s case I am glad he couldn’t as I feel the pain of his experiences would be very hard to bear.

Brin behaved impeccably at the school where over 100 children lined up to stroke him. Cpt. Mark came along to talk to the children about Brin’s life in Afghanistan, bringing with him Sam his own dog. I would have thought Brin would have freaked at meeting such a huge dog but he just greeted him normally as if he knew that he was part of Mark’s family.

Brins tolerance of children was amazing for, in Afghanistan, the new generation of youngsters have, sadly, been brought up to fear strays and their treatment of them has been known to be pretty harsh at times. Brin either escaped such treatment or managed to steer clear for his friendliness was lovely to witness and no children were eaten that day!

Raising funds to help other dogs and cats make it home was always on my mind and one day, while walking in the forest Brin came upon a pair of underpants lying by the base of a tree. He wanted to carry these with him but I managed to persuade him otherwise. I documented this story in pictures as he would rush back each day to check on his ‘treasure’. Other items were also found and the hilarity of his ‘finds’ made for a fundraising idea.

The pants were framed and auctioned along with pictures of his ‘Quest’ and raised a good amount for the charity..the couple who won them were delighted… apart from the fact that when they hung it on their wall it promptly fell down and hit them on the head!

It seemed wherever he went he caused chaos!