THE call came through while he was at Chelsea football club's Player of the Year Awards. Jose Mourinho's wife, Tami, was distraught. Their dog was being taken away, she told her husband. Police officers were wanting to take the pet into quarantine, fearing it had been taken abroad and brought back to Britain without having its inoculations.

What Mourinho did next is now well documented. He didn't tell his wife to hand the pet over to the police, admonishing her for interrupting his awards bash and for getting all upset over a mere pooch.

No. He jumped in his car and drove home. His dog had had all the inoculations it needed, he told officers, before he managed to bundle it away. Mourinho was then taken to his local police station where he was arrested on suspicion of obstructing police before being released.

Whether he reacted so strongly because his wife was upset, or because he felt so strongly about the dog being taken, is unclear. What is evident is that the bond between man and his best friend is as strong as ever. Just ask Stephen Walling, 42, of Moorside, near Consett.

Stephen's dog, Tyke, made headline news when he went missing while on a stroll along a cycle path. It was three days before he had word of Tyke, when youngsters heard a dog barking down a badger sett.

No problem, he thought. I'll dig him out. But he soon learned that, without official permission, he wouldn't be able to dig anything. Eventually, five days after Tyke's disappearance, he was given the all-clear. Mechplant North East offered him a digger and he got to work.

"I just knew I could never leave him there," said Stephen, who finally rescued Tyke after several hours. "I would have just kept on digging until I found him. He's a proper family dog. Thankfully, he's back to normal now, he's on top of the world again."

As Stephen showed, we humans can go to pretty extreme lengths to rescue our pets.

One fire and rescue service in Hampshire spent 24 hours trying to rescue a terrier who'd wedged himself in a storm drain. Eventually, they also needed a rather unexpected saviour - someone who spoke French. Only when the owner was found could he explain that the dog didn't understand what they were saying - he had belonged to a French family. Mais bien fur, perhaps.

Rescue workers were equally committed when it came to helping Prince the labrador from the summit of the highest mountain in England. His owner had called 999 after Prince cut his paws on stones climbing Scafell Pike in the Lake District. Six mountain rescuers ended up stretchering Prince, who weighed six stone, down the mountainside.

One rescue worker even braved a dog allergy to help with one stuck pet. Steve Chapman, from Swaledale Fell Rescue team, and his colleagues were given bronze medals for lifesaving by the RSPCA. They crawled down a narrow tunnel to help rescue Butch, a Jack Russell terrier, in 1994 at a disused quarry at Melsonby, North Yorkshire - even though contact with dogs would bring on Steve's asthma.

According to Dr Joan Harvey, a chartered psychologist at Newcastle University, it is hardly surprising we're willing to go the extra mile when it comes to protecting our pets.

"There's evidence that dogs in particular are actually known to be great stress relievers and they become very close to their owners," says Dr Harvey, who has two canine friends of her own.

"I think dogs learnt thousands of years ago they are better off being closer to humans than not. From the dog's point of view, it's a member of the pack.

"We often see them as part of the family and some see them as child substitutes. But the love that dogs provide is unconditional so people can become very attached to them. It's not really surprising that someone would go to great lengths to rescue them or pay huge medical bills to ensure their welfare."

But sometimes people can pay the ultimate price for their doggy devotion. Nigel Hammond lost his life after trying to rescue his dog from the River Spey in Banffshire in 2003. While his wife and dog were later plucked safely from the water, Mr Hammond was swept downstream.

And a woman from Somerset died last July after she, too, tried to save her golden retriever from the fast-flowing waters of a weir. The dog survived.

But, equally, there are many more cases were dogs have proved invaluable friends - whether working for their blind owners or for the military in the world's trouble spots. Golden retriever Nikie, was used as therapy in the days after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. One man, who worked in the morgue, talked to Nikie for almost an hour after a day when many of the victims had been found.

"People are nice, but dogs are different," he said simply.

Elsewhere in America, golden retriever Toby saved his owner from choking to death by performing the Heimlich manoeuvre after she had swallowed a piece of apple. After pounding on her own chest, Toby joined in, jumping up and down on her and eventually dislodging the food. He then licked her face so she wouldn't pass out. Although she was covered in paw-shaped bruises, she was otherwise fit and well.

Finally, Belle the beagle bit on her owner's mobile phone and alerted emergency services after he fell into a diabetic seizure in America.

Ambulance workers answered the phone and, hearing nothing but barking at the end of the line, rushed to the caller's house.

"I'm convinced that if Belle wasn't with me that morning, I wouldn't be alive today," her owner Kevin Weaver said afterwards. "Belle is more than just a life-saver. She's my best friend."

And there are many who would agree with him.

Additional research by Bethany Lowes.