A couple have been evicted from a flat and then a hotel in their fight to stay with their beloved pet chicken.

Alex Kurt, 35, from Dartford, had initially been living "off-grid" at Blackshole Farm with her 65-year-old partner Colin Boorman, their 23 chickens and a cat.

When the land was sold, they turned to the council for help with housing but were devastated to discover their cat and just one of the chickens could not come with them.

Zero the chicken has become especially important to the couple after she saved Mr Boorman's life by alerting Ms Kurt that his blood sugar levels had dropped dangerously low while he was asleep.

To stay all together, the pair smuggled their beloved pets into temporary accommodation but were evicted when the property company, Paramount Independent Property Services, discovered the animals. It has a strict no pets policy.

They were placed in a Travelodge by a local homeless charity while the chicken stayed at a friend's house.

But this didn't work out and the chicken was once again smuggled in by Ms Kurt and Mr Boorman. Zero was discovered when the fire alarms went off and she escaped from the room. They were once again evicted.

They are now waiting to be housed by Maidstone council.

Ms Kurt says she is known among Maidstone's homeless community as "the crazy chicken lady". But it's a badge she wears with pride as she believes on New Year's Day Zero saved Mr Boorman's life.

She said: "Zero got onto the bed while Colin was sleeping and made distressed sounds until I was prompted to try and wake him up.

"When I couldn’t rouse him, I checked his blood sugar and it was 1.7 which is dangerously low.

"Without her intervention, I may never have realised his predicament."

Zero has also helped Ms Kurt with her own health issues.

"I have always had the ability to bond with animals," said the pet owner. "When I was walking in the freezing cold I felt that link with the hen I had rescued and she dissolved my madness completely.

"I never realised a bird could ground me like that. It gives the idea of an emotional support animal a very personal reality."

And this is why the couple are so desperate to keep the chicken with them.

Their housing problems began when the owners of the farm sold the land to developers. Initially they stayed in a caravan in a neighbouring horse field which had no heating, electricity or sanitation.

During that time they say they were burgled and had many of their possessions stolen — including all the chickens except for Zero.

With Mr Boorman's health in decline the couple applied to Dartford council for help.

The council says it understands that pets can provide comfort and will seek to accommodate them in housing it directly manages so long as they are cared for properly.

But the couple were offered a home with Paramount – a private landlord – who have a blanket ban on pets in their emergency housing.

"We were told we had to accept the offer of a flat in Chaucer House or die on the streets," claimed Ms Kurt.

Ms Kurt opted to remain in Dartford so that she could continue to look after their remaining chicken. Her partner took the flat and secretly smuggled in the cat.

She said: "I spent three more nights sofa-surfing in Dartford. I am not ashamed to admit that I was also in the grips of a schizo-affective episode brought on by stress.

"I found it impossible to be around people and started to crash into chaotic thinking and paranoid delusions."

But then, Mr Boorman was hospitalised due to complications from his diabetes.

He was later discharged but was still very poorly and so Ms Kurt moved into the Maidstone flat with him to act as his carer - taking Zero the chicken with her.

A week later, Paramount carried out a random room check and discovered both the cat and the hen in the flat.

The couple were evicted for breaching the no-pet policy.

The Maidstone Churches’ Winter Shelter Project came to their aid and housed the couple temporarily in a Travelodge hotel.

Ms Kurt said: "We are so grateful to the volunteers and staff at the Winter Shelter Project. They have shown such genuine care and compassion."

Zero stayed with friends while the pair lived in the hotel. But due to issues with neighbours and other animals, the chicken had to leave and was smuggled in to the hotel.

On Friday, their efforts were discovered when Mr Boorman set the fire alarms off while making toast. When staff came to check, the chicken ran out the door and they were rumbled.

They were kicked out and told the room would need a deep clean because she had a chicken in it.

She is now trying to be rehomed by Maidstone council once again.

Ms Kurt has tried to explain to the councils why it's so important to have Zero with her. She said: "I told Dartford of the importance of the John Chadwick Policy which Maidstone council had implemented to safeguard homeless people with pets."

The policy was named after homeless man John Chadwick who took his own life just 10 days after being forbidden from taking his dogs and cats into emergency accommodation found for him.

It means pet owners in Maidstone are no longer deemed to be making themselves "intentionally homeless" if they reject a home that prohibits pets.

Maidstone council now allows pets in its own emergency accommodation and encourages the private landlords that it uses to do so too.

Ms Kurt added: "In this day and age - and with our being a nation of animal lovers - it is inhumane to separate people from their companion animals. They are just as important to us 'animal people' as any human could be."

"The new Maidstone pets policy needs to become national law to stop John's story, and ours, repeating in a society which claims to protect us.

"How many more people need to martyr themselves before we see a nationwide amendment to the law?"

At the moment in the private rented sector landlords can impose a blanket ban on pets in a tenant’s contract.

A Renters Reform Bill is expected to go before Parliament later this year which, among other things, includes a stop on blanket “no pet” clauses.

If passed in full, the legislation will mean landlords must have good reason to refuse permission for a tenant to have an animal in their home.

Speaking about Ms Kurt's case, a Dartford council spokesman said: "The council understands that pets can provide comfort and when homeless applicants are placed in accommodation managed directly by the council it is often possible to accommodate pets, so long as they are cared for properly.

He added: "The council asks homeless applicants to disclose if they have pets so that we can attempt to find suitable accommodation.

"In this instance a warning seems to have been issued to the occupants related to one pet and then later in December we understand that a further warning was issued related to the keeping of poultry inside the accommodation.

"When the warnings were not adhered to, the provider took the decision to end the placement. Ending placements in this way is not something that we ever like to see and in many situations can be avoided by communication and openness from the start.”

Paramount Independent Property Services declined to comment.