![A bond like no other: Buddy saved his owner Ted after he suffered a stroke. Picture by Vera Demertzis A bond like no other: Buddy saved his owner Ted after he suffered a stroke. Picture by Vera Demertzis](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/C5T5utnEbuCCVHhsQW5GNd/625486c9-e0d4-4f1b-9181-2566f757695f.JPG/r0_287_4032_2330_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
It is universally acknowledged that a person's best friend is their dog; which is precisely the case for Ted Hayman and his loyal companion, a red kelpie called Buster.
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Ted and Buster share a bond like no other, which ultimately led to Buster saving Ted's life.
It was an ordinary morning on November 11, 2021, when Ted had gone to inspect his cattle in the paddocks on his Bundanoon property.
Buster was by his side.
However, in the blink of an eye, everything changed.
Ted suffered a stroke just before 7 am and collapsed into the long grass.
His dog Buster alerted two Wingecarribee Shire Council workers who were driving past on Quarry Road.
They stopped and Buster led them to where Ted was lying in the paddock.
"I wasn't sick at all," Ted said.
"It was just another day. I couldn't believe it.
"It was maybe after 10 minutes when I heard the car stop".
"I didn't see them. I couldn't see them, but they took the phone off me and called for help by dialling 000".
"I couldn't believe it. It was just out of the blue."
Patting Buster, Ted said he was a "wonderful dog" and was grateful for him.
"He's very loyal and special," he said
"I got him to keep the Kangaroos out of my paddocks. He's got a natural skill for it. He chases them straight away."
Ted was treated on-site by the RFS and Ambulance personnel before being transported to Campbelltown Hospital where he stayed until mid-February, 2022.
He then spent a short time at Bowral Hospital before being moved to Harbison Aged Care facility in Moss Vale, where he has remained for the last eight months.
With the help of some of his neighbours, Ted is on a mission to get home.
"It would mean everything to me," he said.
"I'm walking around and getting better each day.
"I'm going as well as anything with Buster."
Buster remains in the good care of one of Ted's neighbours.
A lifelong Bundanoon local, Ted's family goes back several generations.
He has researched much local history for the book he published, 'From Sutton Forest to Bundanoon'.
"My father was here all his life, and his father before him was here all his life," he said.
"They moved here in 1857. They went to Sutton Forest first. They didn't stay there for long before they came to Bundanoon."
The remains of a house built by his grandfather about 1870 are still present on a property immediately west of Paddy's River.
In 1940 his father built a classic stone house where Ted has lived all his life and wants to return to.
Born into a family of hard workers, Ted became a very skilled self-taught person. Through hard work and frugal living Ted accumulated a dairy farm which he managed for many years.
His skills include welding, plumbing, electrical, mechanical and all aspects of farm management. Ted has bought, built, fixed and maintained just about everything on his farm from his teenage years.
A walking encyclopedia of Bundanoon and its surrounds, Ted can recall when the sheds on his property were built, how old the trees are, and reflects on having to cross the Paddy's River to get to primary school in the 1940s.
However, he wasn't one for schooling.
"I wasn't interested in that," he said.
With a keen interest in working with his hands, Ted at the age of 13, rode his bike to Nevertire, 500 km north-west of Bundanoon, to work with shearing contractors.
He thinks the trip took him three or four days. The bicycle remains in his shed to this day.
"It didn't take me very long. I was a good bike rider back then. I'm a little slower now," he said.
"I would pick up the wool from the floor for four or five months".
After Nevertire he worked on other stations as far away as Bourke in western NSW.
"I had a good time there," he said.
He embarked on a trip to Darwin in 2018 with Buster, when he drove from Bundanoon, through South Australia to Uluru, Darwin, outback Queensland and back home.
He longs to make a similar trip as soon as he can, even though age has slowed him down a bit.
One year later, Ted hopes he will be allowed to return home to Bundanoon where he feels free, enthusiastic and energetic outside of the aged care facility.
All his neighbours and friends wish him a speedy release to live his dream on his farm, in his own house with his life-saving kelpie, Buster.
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