Driving home for Christmas? The sight of a man driving through Maidstone with a turkey on his passenger seat could bring to mind strains of Chris Rea…

But everyone can rest assured, Dave Brooker’s pet turkey T2 will not end up on his plate come December 25 – and after causing a stir on social media Dave has finally spoken out to explain why he and his unusual companion are often seen together around town.

Among those intrigued by the sight, was Maria Tucker, who took to Facebook to say she’d seen a man driving with a turkey on the one-way system, adding: “I thought I was seeing things. If you see this please write on this post why you were driving with a turkey. It did crack me up, made my day x.”

Others responded to say they’d seen Dave and his turkey at various locations, including Tesco in Tovil, Maidstone, and now Dave, who keeps a flock of turkeys as a hobby, has explained why.

“She's two years old so she's been provoking reaction for the last year,” he said, speaking to KentOnline. “She’s called T2 – Trouble Version 2 – because her mum's called Trouble.

“Two years ago her mum was sitting on a dozen eggs and the weather turned awful. The first two that hatched died, so I set up a little brooder for them, which has a heat lamp to keep them warm, and she was the first one out.

“We saved all the other 10, and nine went back under mum, and one went 'no you're my parent', and just kept following me and wouldn't stay under the mum.”

T2 has been following Dave around ever since, and he regularly takes her shopping or to the pub at the White Horse in Maidstone, where she’s become a familiar sight.

Dave, 56, from Wouldham, explained one of her favourite destinations was the supermarket, for a taste of her favourite snack – the meat of a scotch egg.

“She goes everywhere with me,” he added. “Obviously I don't take her into Tesco but she goes in the car park, and normally gets fed in the car park because she loves the sausage meat on scotch eggs.

“She absolutely adores that and it’s her treat when she goes to Tesco. I won't feed her in the car because she makes a mess but she jumps out and eats in the car park. You get some incredibly strange looks, and a lot of really good chats with people.

“I do generally have quite a laugh,” he adds. “She's a great talking point and she goes to the pub. We go to the White Horse in Maidstone, and she's been going there since she was a baby. I’ve got a video of her walking on the bar as a little chick.

“The away darts team will come in and they'll say ‘please can I take a photo, my wife won't believe I've seen a live turkey in the pub’.

“She's got a blanket she lies on and she's better behaved than most dogs.”

Dave explained he takes T2 everywhere, except when he goes to work at Tesco as an online order picker, which is why they’re often seen driving together.

“She's ever so good in the car”, he added. “The moment you’re moving she sits down and doesn't move. Sometimes you'll stop and she'll look out the window at traffic lights, and you get some hysterical reactions. It's normally children that spot her and alert the parents going 'look look' and you get some fantastic responses.

“She's very tame, very sociable and well-behaved. She doesn't wander off and she lets people pet here. Quite often I'll be feeding her in Tesco car park and kids will come over, and adults. Quite often because nobody’s had turkey eggs, I try to give them an egg because I normally have a couple in the car. It just helps people think about turkeys in a different way, because most people actually haven;t seen a live turkey.”

Aside from enjoying their company, Dave said the eggs were another bonus of keeping a flock of Turkeys. But while he enjoys the eggs, he could never eat one of his pets.

“I just keep them purely as a hobby and for their eggs,” he added. “They're lovely eggs. Nobody ever gets turkey eggs because everyone that has turkeys is breeding them so", – Dave pauses a second, before finally adding: "So there won't be eggs to...."

Does he mean most people breed them for Christmas?

"Don't say the C word!" he shouts, laughing.

“I just think they’re great characters,” he adds. “They’re interesting birds and they look prehistoric. She's my little velociraptor. You definitely don't get any spiders around with her. Everyone thinks some birds are vegetarian but they're not - that's why turkeys eat sausage meat. She'll eat worms, spiders, flies, anything like that.

“I don't eat turkey any more. I used to but I couldn't now, not with a pet turkey. It would be like someone eating dog.

“I don't eat chicken out of choice either because I keep chickens. 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.”