(Picture: CBC/ Abbey Boyd)

A dog named Ted has won the heart of a woman who met him at a shelter after the pair bonded over some cheese-flavoured bacon strips.

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Abbey Boyd, from Yellowknife, Canada, first met Ted at the Northwest Territories SPCA in January 2017.

He was very timid and scared, and had a little nick on his nose. He was surrounded by other cats and dogs who had been abandoned.

Abbey, who works at the SPCA, was on shift when she saw Ted, and she tried taking him out for a walk to give him some fresh air.


(Picture: CBC/ Abbey Boyd)

But Ted refused to let her take him – and didn’t allow anyone else to take him out for the entire day either.



Abbey decided to come back to Ted a while later, this time offering him a treat. She fed him some cheese-flavoured bacon strips, and immediately, Ted warmed to her.

Before leaving for home, Abbey requested that the maintenance guy at the centre build Ted a large kennel so that he was more comfortable.

‘Apart from that, I had next to no contact with Ted during my shift at the SPCA. I left and went home,’ Abbey told CBC News.

The following morning at 3am, Abbey got up to get ready and leave for her other job at her local airport.

(Picture: CBC/ Abbey Boyd)

Upon her return three hours later, she noticed a dog sitting on her deck, of German shepherd and Akita mix.

At first, Abbey stayed back, weary of whether the dog was aggressive or not. But after watching him stay perfectly still in one position, she decided to approach him.

Immediately, the dog ran past her, but continued to linger on her property. With patience, Abbey managed to lure the dog into her home. And that’s when she noticed the small nick on the dog’s nose. It was Ted.

Abbey called the SPCA to find out whether it really was Ted or not, and was told that Ted had actually busted out of his outdoor kennel and escaped through the fence.

Ted had trekked 5.5km to Abbey’s home (Picture: Google maps)

To this day, Abbey still doesn’t know how Ted managed to get from the shelter to her house having never been there before – especially as the two buildings are 3.5 miles apart.

To find Abbey’s house, Ted would have had to have trekked past the Yellowknife airport, crossing some ponds and lakes, and walked through several neighbourhoods. He really is one dedicated dog.

Abbey said: ‘It doesn’t really make sense, how he would have chosen or found me out of all the smells. It’s just, it’s the weirdest, the most amazing thing that’s ever happened.

‘It could be a complete coincidence, but I’m from Yellowknife. Everything’s a sign when it comes to animals.

(Picture: CBC/ Abbey Boyd)

‘I can’t ignore a sign like that. He showed up at my house, out of how many people [that] live here? All the dogs. All the smells. He chose my house. Where I am.’



After seeing just how much Ted wanted to be with her (and her cheese-flavoured bacon strips), Abbey has since started the process of adopting Ted. She plans to move into a new home soon as her current property doesn’t allow for dogs.

Very soon, Ted will be getting his happy ever after and a brand new start with his new owner, Abbey.

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