An animal lover has swapped eating turkey for Christmas dinner for eating Christmas dinner WITH his pet turkey - who loves a mince pie.

Dave Brooker takes his beloved pet turkey Trouble Version Two, or T2 for short, everywhere with him - including to the pub and dentist.

Locals in Maidstone, Kent, are often baffled to see the 59-year-old sat alongside T2 in his car at traffic lights - or eating the meat from a scotch egg in a Tesco car park.

The turkey can also often be seen casually sitting in the town's White Horse pub with a packet of cheese & onion crisps.

The inseparable pair have had such an effect on one another over their five-and-a-half years together that Mr Brooker has abstained from turkey and other poultry since their relationship began.

But two years ago, he decided to abstain altogether from meat - though T2 still enjoys a meaty treat.

Last year, Mr Brooker even took T2 on a Parkrun on Christmas Day, in an attempt to make people think twice about eating turkey.

"Turkeys are lovely animals, they're very intelligent and sentient," Mr Brooker,"

an online order picker for Tesco, said.

"People love T2. They can't believe they're seeing an actual turkey."

"People are always shocked to see a real turkey walking around."

"It was only after T2 that I stopped eating turkey. When you build a bond, you realise how intelligent they are. "

"She feeds the horses with me and follows me around like a pet dog. "

"Initially I started eating beef on Christmas Day, but two years ago I decided to stop eating meat altogether. "

"It was all driven by T2 and being so attached to her."

"But T2 isn't vegetarian - if she sees a spider, she will have it. If you don't want spiders in the house, get a pet turkey. "

"I'd feel guilty if I ate turkey now... Especially while one's looking you in the eye!"

Thankfully, Mr Brooker says the vegetables were always his favourite part of the dinner anyway, whilst T2 prefers a mince pie and the skins of brussels sprouts.

"I enjoy all the vegetables and the trimmings and stuff," Mr Brooker continued. "

"This year I'll be at my mum's, but I'll take home some trimmings and me and T2 will have a bit of a shindig at home together. "

"T2 will get spoiled. She likes a mince pie and I might even pour her a Guinness, which she's quite partial to."

"We'll watch something on TV later on. T2 sits on my lap and either watches along or falls asleep. "

"Her tastes change, but she has quite a sweet tooth. We had some festive bakewells the other day, which she really liked."

The unlikely duo's story began when Mr Brooker, who began keeping turkeys and chickens for their eggs, was forced to care for newborn T2 before she could return to her mother, Trouble.

"Her mum was sitting on a dozen eggs and the weather turned awful," he explained."

"The first two that hatched died, so I set up a brooder to get the turkeys strong enough to go back under their mum."

"T2 was the first one out and I fed her for 10 or 11 hours."

"She was on her own with me checking on her and must have thought I was her parent."

"The others all went back underneath the mother quite easily, but not T2."

"Ever since, she literally goes everywhere with me. She's like my child."

"There's a mutual bond. She's good company and entertaining - sometimes I even think she's part human."

Since forming his bond with T2, Mr Brooker euphemistically refers to December as the time of year when all turkeys 'go on holiday'.

"I couldn't eat turkey now," he said. "Not with a pet turkey. It would be like someone eating dog."

"When you keep an animal it's quite hard... Maybe if you're a farmer you can switch off to it, but I'm a bit of a softy."

"If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have gone vegetarian."

Keen runner Mr Brooker is convinced last year's Christmas Day foray - with T2 nestled in a pram borrowed from a friend - was the first Parkrun ever to have been completed by a turkey.

"I'm sure there's no turkey in the world that has been pushed 5km in a pram on Christmas Day before," he said. "

"But I know a lot of people do Parkrun with their dogs, so why not with a turkey?"

Though some people find the pair's undeniably strong bond a little unorthodox, the pair even sleep in the same room together at their home in the village of Wouldham, Kent.

The only time the pair are separated is when Mr Brooker goes to work as an online order picker for Tesco.

T2 is such a feature in her owner's life that she even accompanies him to the dentist.

"I was at the dentist and I asked the receptionist if she could turkey-sit for me," Mr Brooker said."

"She thought it was a joke, but then I brought T2 in. They all loved it."

"Most people think it's really strange, but it's actually a really good talking point."

T2 has by now become a normal sight amongst locals, who frequently spot her sat alongside her owner in his car at traffic lights or at the pub for a pint.

"She draws quite a fair bit of attention from people," Mr Brooker admitted."

"But she's very well-behaved. At the pub, she sits on her blanket and stays there."

"Unlike most dogs who would run around, you sit her down with a pack of cheese & onion crisps and she's happy."

"She's very tame, very sociable and well-behaved. She doesn't wander off and she lets people pet her."

"It just helps people think about turkeys in a different way, because most people actually haven't seen a live turkey."

Mr Brooker added that his bond with T2 is as important as dogs and their owners, saying: "Some people might find it very strange, but some people have 70 cats and they don't even clean up after them."

"I went through a bad spell of anxiety and depression back in 2014, and it's helpful to have a bond like this with an animal."

"People are worried she'll run away when I feed her in the Tesco car park - but she'd never do that."

"If we were all the same the world would be boring, and there's a lot weirder things that happen than a man keeping a turkey."

"She just makes people smile, which I think is fantastic."