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EARLIER: A Long Gully Uniting Church reverend is desperately appealing for the return of his beloved Border collie, Rose, after his car was stolen with the dog inside on Wednesday afternoon.

George Buckle said he left his keys in the white Holden Commodore VS station wagon while he ducked into the IGA supermarket in Kangaroo Flat at about 1pm.

“I just slipped in to get a paper actually, and I thought the dog would be a deterrent to anybody pinching it and I left the keys in the car,” he said.

The 83-year-old said Rose had been his “constant companion” since his wife, Joan, passed away three years ago.

“She grieved with me,” he said.

“I never go anywhere without the dog, she grieves for me if I'm not around.”

Reverend Buckle has been a reverend at the Long Gully Uniting Church for a decade and said everyone at the church knew Rose, who had also travelled more than 12,000 kilometres around Australia with him.

“We’ve been to Alice Springs via Broome and all over the place, we sleep together in the wagon,” he said.

“She was my sole companion, I never travelled with anybody else, just me and the dog.”