A dog lover was stunned to discover the face of his beloved mongrel a year after it died - in a slice of ham.

George Hembry spotted the spitting image of his lurcher-whippet-collie cross, Stink, in the meat as his mother, Sarah, made a sandwich.

He put the ham side-by-side with an old picture of Stink, who died last October, to show the uncanny similarities.

George Hembry is convinced he can see the face of his old dog Stink (left) in this slice of ham

The dog's nose, eyes, and ears are clearly visible in the slice of £1.80 Tesco British Crumbed Ham, which George bought during a shopping trip to the supermarket.

And the 21-year-old said the discovery was even spookier because he and his mother had been discussing how much they missed their pet of 16 years earlier that day.

Mum was about to make a sandwich with it but there's no way I could have eaten it with Stink's face on it George Hembry, who spotted his dead dog's face in a slice of Tesco ham

Mr Hembry, a carer from Bath, Somerset, said: 'We were just shocked. When we opened it we were like: 'What the f**k?'

'It made me wish that Stink was there. It was incredible because we used to take Stink to that shop all the time.

'We'd been talking earlier that day about how much we missed him because an old photo memory popped up on my Facebook page.

George is an only child and he was very close to his beloved dog, Stink, who died last October

'Mum was about to make a sandwich with it but there's no way I could have eaten it with Stink's face on it.

'It was about 7pm on Wednesday we went and we were talking about how we'd usually bring him and tie him outside until we'd got the shopping.

'There was one time when he somehow got in the shop and they had to make an announcement over the in-store radio to ask us to collect him.

'So it was really weird to see his face in something we bought from there. I was pretty stunned to be honest.'

Stink (left) had been in the Hembry family since he was a puppy and died last October aged 16. His owner George Hembry (right) had been thinking of him the day he found the uncanny ham

Mr Hembry, who lives at home with Sarah, 40, and father Nick, 48, now has a new dog, Wilson, a one-year-old German Shepherd.

The family had owned Stink from when he was a puppy until he succumbed to arthritis and was put down last October, and he still holds a big place in Mr Hembry's heart.

He said: 'He was more like a brother to me really. I'm an only child and me and Stink did everything together.

George pictured in the middle in happier times with his beloved Stink (left) and his father, Nick

'When he was younger he was really active and we used to go on walks and take him to the fields. He got on well with all the other dogs he met.

'I had a really close bond with him. He was quite hard to train at first but he was a very good dog.

'He had really bad arthritis for about two months and we tried to treat it with tablets. I was devastated when he was put down.

'It's funny to think he's maybe still looking over us somehow. I quite wanted to keep the bit of ham but I suppose it would have gone off after a while.