Chapter 1

It was nearly Christmas down on the farm. In the barn Lucky the duck was keeping one eye on the turkeys in their pen. The other eye was keeping a lookout for her friend, Tiger the barnyard cat. Lucky had been born with a crooked neck. This was useful for looking two ways at once, especially when Tiger was on the prowl. He liked to creep up on her and pounce but she always managed to see him out of one eye and get out of the way in time.

She could see him now on top of a big bale of straw. When he pounced she flew up onto the bale.

“Can’t catch me!”

But Tiger had caught someone. Lucky had forgotten that Hannah the pig had crawled under her wing to keep warm and Tiger landed right on top of her. Hannah squealed and then began to cry.

“Sorry, Hannah. Don’t cry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. I was after Lucky.”

Hannah sniffed. She was a very small pig, what they call the runt of the litter. Lucky had looked after her when she was born and now she lived in the barn with Lucky and Tiger. 

“That’s alright Tiger. I know you didn’t mean it,”

Hannah sniffed again and tried to snuggle up to Tiger. But Tiger was off again.

“Ha! Grow your own fur coat. You are not having mine!” He turned to Lucky. “What are we going to do to keep Hannah warm this winter? You cannot keep her under your wing all the time.”

Lucky nodded. She was worried about Hannah. She was not very strong and she had a hard time in the cold weather. Just then Sophie came in.  She was the farmer’s daughter and had helped Lucky take care of Hannah when she was a piglet.

“Hello you three,” she said. “Look what I’ve got! I knitted this specially for Hannah. It’s her Christmas present.”

Sophie bent down and slipped a tiny jumper over Hannah’s head. It was made from all the odd bits of wool that were left over from the scarves and hats and mittens that Sophie had been knitting as presents for all her family. She had made a hole for Hannah’s head and sleeves for her front legs but had run out of wool before she got to his back legs.  So there was Hannah, feeling all warm and snug, even though the wool itched a little bit, and very pleased with her present.

Tiger was laughing. “Ha! Ha! You look like a sheep wearing all that wool.”

But secretly he was a bit jealous. He wanted a Christmas present as well.

“There, that will keep you warm for the winter,” said Sophie. “Now all of you shoo. I have to feed the turkeys. We need to get them nice and fat for the Christmas Market.”

None of the other animals knew what Market was. But the three friends did. Lucky and Hannah sometimes felt sorry for the other animals. But Tiger told them not to be silly.

“This is a farm and farm animals go to Market,” he told them. “Just be glad that Sophie decided to keep you so you don’t have to go.”

He was right of course. Even so, Lucky and Hannah always stayed out of the way when the lorry came to take the other ducks and pigs to Market. It wasn’t so bad with the turkeys. They were noisy and silly like the geese. Lucky was almost glad to see them go.

Then, one morning they woke up and all the turkeys had gone! Lucky and Tiger had not heard the lorry come and they had not heard Hannah either.  Hannah always started squealing and looking for somewhere to hide when the market lorry came. She still remembered the time when she and Lucky had been kidnapped and taken to market. She did not want to go there again.

But Hannah was missing as well. Lucky and Tiger looked at each other. Had she been kidnapped again? Surely not! They searched the barn. Lucky asked the mice behind the hay bales. Tiger kept away so they would not be frightened. He checked the pig pen. None of Hannah’s cousins had seen her and they had not heard the lorry either.  Tiger let Lucky ask the geese. He still had nasty memories of an angry old gander from when he was a kitten. But they were no use at all. Lucky joined Tiger in the empty turkey pen to decide what to do next. 

Chapter 2

Earlier that morning, before the sun came up, Hannah had been asleep in the turkey pen. Even with her woolly jumper, she still felt the cold, especially round her back legs. So she had taken to sleeping with the turkeys. They were a noisy lot but they were not as fierce as the geese and when she snuggled up it was like being in a warm feathery bed. Only this morning she woke up shivering in the dark. There was a cold wind blowing through the pen. Someone had made a hole in the wall of the barn and all the silly birds had wandered out.

Hannah thought to herself. “They won’t have gone far. If I hurry I can find them and bring them back before the others wake up.” She squeezed through the hole in the wall. Even though she was small for her age, she was still growing into quite a round little pig and she had to wriggle to get through the gap. But she made it and set off across the field in the dark.

Like all pigs, Hannah had a very good sense of smell and could follow the turkeys’ trail just like a bloodhound. But she did not notice that her jumper had caught on a jagged edge of the hole in the barn when she wriggled through. As she trotted in the dark she was so busy sniffing out the turkeys’ trail that she did not notice her jumper unravelling. Then, with a sharp tug she stopped to find that apart from the collar the whole jumper was trailing behind her. Hannah was sad about the jumper. But it was too late to go back now. She could just see the turkeys down by the fence. They were nearly at the road.

Hannah made up her mind. She bit off the woollen strand pulling on her collar and ran towards the fence, calling to the turkeys to stop.

Then Hannah stopped. She heard a man’s voice. She knew that voice. It was Bob! He was the one who had kidnapped her and Lucky and taken them to Market. Tiger had rescued them, and Bob went to prison. Now he was free and up to his old tricks. Only this time he was kidnapping the turkeys! All the birds were gobbling their way along a trail of corn he had laid that led straight into the back of his truck. Hannah scampered down to the edge of the field. Bob never saw her in the dark and he could not hear her above the noise of the turkeys.

Now it was Hannah’s turn to be brave. She jumped in the truck with the turkeys just in time. Bob slammed the tailgate shut and went round to the driver’s seat. Now what could she do? Hannah saw another sack of grain and tore it open with her teeth. When Bob drove away she pushed the sack over a gap in the bottom of the truck. The grain trickled out leaving a trail along the road. The turkeys all attacked the sack trying to eat the grain. They got some of it but all their scrabbling about helped to force more grain through the gap in the bottom of the truck. It left a very thick trail.

The grain was nearly all gone when the truck stopped. Bob picked up the empty sack and smiled.

“You greedy gobblers! Getting yourselves nice and fat for Christmas eh? That will push the price up. Follow me if you want some more.”

Bob grabbed another sack and the silly birds followed him out of the truck and into a shed. When they were all inside, he locked the door. What about Hannah? All alone in the truck she did not feel so brave any more. She wanted to find a dark corner and hide but that would never do. She had to escape before Bob came back. He nearly caught her. He never expected a pig to leap out of the back of the truck. Hannah hid in a ditch. Bob got his torch and looked and looked but he did not find her. He gave up in the end, got in his truck and drove away.

Chapter 3.

Hannah was cold and tired and hungry and all alone in the dark. She wished that Lucky and Tiger would come. Tiger was brave and Lucky was clever. They would know what to do. In fact the two friends were not that far away. It was Tiger who spotted the woollen thread caught on the jaggedy hole. He was still a bit of a kitten and liked to play with a ball of wool when he thought no one was watching. Lucky had seen him playing, but she never let on.

Anyway, Tiger unhooked the wool and began to roll it into a ball as he followed it across the field. When he got to the end of trail of wool he stopped and called out to Hannah, but she did not answer. Lucky had been flying ahead and came back with some news.

“Down by the gate there are some tyre tracks and a lot of grain spilled on the ground making a trail down the road. It is all very strange.”

“Turkey rustlers!” said Tiger. “I remember my old mum telling me about them. They come in the night and steal the birds. Then they drive to a city where nobody knows them and sell the turkeys,  no questions asked.”

“Oh dear!” Lucky was worried now. “They must have taken Hannah as well. We have to get to the city and rescue her.”

Usually it was Tiger who wanted to dash off without thinking. But Lucky loved Hannah so much she wasn’t thinking. So Tiger took charge. He told Lucky to follow the trail while he unrolled the wool back to the barn. It was a clue, and he hoped the farmer would follow it.

So Lucky flew off down the road. It would soon be light and that would make it easier to see the grain. Lucky was feeling better now they had a plan. Someone was leaving a trail on purpose. Not the rustlers and not the foolish gobblers. It must be Hannah. What a clever piglet! Halfway down the road the trail ended.

Then she noticed a rough track to the left. Lucky flew down and followed the trail. Actually she ate the trail of grain because she suddenly remembered that she had not had her breakfast. But she kept one eye on the lookout for danger and one eye on the trail as she munched her way towards Hannah.

At the bottom of the track was an old shed. Even before she saw it Lucky could hear the gobblers. They had eaten all the grain and now they were complaining. This draughty old shed was not as nice as their warm barn. They wanted to go home. So did Hannah. And when she saw Lucky she squealed with delight and leapt out of the ditch and ran straight at her.  For a moment Lucky was so scared she nearly flew away. The ditch were Hannah had hidden was dirty and smelly and all Lucky saw was a filthy, muddy creature howling and charging straight at her. Then she saw it was Hannah and did not mind if her lovely white feathers were covered in sticky smelly mud as the friends hugged each other.

Chapter 4

All this time Tiger had been unrolling the ball of wool across the field and back to the barn. He was trying very hard not to give in to his kitten brain and play with the wool. But this was his plan and he had to stick to it.

Just as the sun rose and the rooster crowed in the farmyard Tiger reached the barn. He was just in time as Sophie came down to feed the Turkeys and check up on Hannah. She shouted for her dad and the farmer appeared looking very grim.

“Turkey rustlers!” he snarled.

“And they’ve got Hannah,” cried Sophie.

Tiger was howling and spitting with his fur standing on end by the hole in the barn. The farmer had learned to pay attention to Tiger and Lucky. He would never admit it to the other farmers, but he believed they knew a lot that went on. So he went over to the hole and found the thread.

“That is Hannah’s jumper,” said Sophie. She recognised the wool. So the Farmer and Tiger followed the trail while Sophie went back to the farmhouse to tell mum to call the police. When the wool ended Tiger ran to the gate at the bottom of the field. As soon as the farmer saw the tyre tracks and the grain he guessed what had happened and waited for the police to arrive.

“Don’t you worry, sir. We’ll catch them.” said the young police constable. Then he got in his car and went off in the wrong direction! Tiger was very cross. OK. It was a busy road, and the trail of corn was squashed and smudged by all the car tyres. But if you looked properly you could still see it.

Tiger headed off down the road and kept looking back at the farmer, who guessed that Tiger wanted him to follow. But when the trail ended in the middle of the road they were stuck because Lucky had eaten the rest of the trail for her breakfast! It was a long walk back to the farm and the farmer picked up Tiger and carried him home.

Back at the farmhouse the farmer rang the police. At least he could point them in the right direction, even if the trail had gone cold. Tiger was worried. Now both Hannah and Lucky were missing, and he did not know what to do. So he went to look for his old mum. He found her with Lucky’s mum. Tabby and Lucy were good friends. They lived in the house now and let their children have all the adventures. They were very worried to hear Tiger’s news.

“The youngsters need our help,” said Lucy. Tabby purred in agreement. “Tiger, I want you to show us where you went this morning. And slow down so we can keep up with you. We are getting old, remember.”

Tiger led them to the end of the trail. They were tired and hungry by the time they got there. But a hungry duck can always find food and Lucy spotted some grains in the trackway that Lucky had missed. “It’s this way,” she quacked, and Tabby said to Tiger, “You have to be very clever and find a way to tell the farmer where to look for his turkeys. Listen! You can just hear them gobbling at the bottom of this track.”

So Tabby and Lucy went down the track and Tiger headed back to farm as fast as he could run. And now he had to think of another plan!

Chapter 5

And what had big bad Bob been up to all day? Well, he had learned a few things in prison. The most important thing was how not to get caught. That is why he had hidden the turkeys. No way was he going to risk driving them to the city in broad daylight with the police out looking. His plan was to wait until it got dark and drive off with the turkeys in the middle of the night. So he had a good breakfast, set the alarm for teatime and went back to bed.

Lucky Bob! Poor old Hannah and Lucky were keeping watch on the Turkeys and waiting for Tiger to come to the rescue. But he never came. Lucky was beginning to think that they might as well forget about the silly gobblers and go back to the farm when Tabby and Lucy arrived. They were so glad to find each other.

While Hannah cuddled up to Tabby to keep warm Lucky and Lucy tried to think of another plan. They trusted Tiger to bring help. But would it arrive in time? What could they do if Bob came back?

“If Tiger was here he would pounce. Tiger is good at pouncing,” said Lucky, proud of her friend.

“Any good at pouncing, Tabby?” Lucy called across to her friend.

“Not as good as I used to be. Listen. There’s a shed full of Turkeys there waiting to be saved. You should have a word with them and persuade them to save themselves. It best come from you, seeing as you have feathers like them, and I have fur.”

So Lucy and Lucky flew into the shed through a hole in the roof. The turkeys were so surprised that they stopped gobbling and grumping and listened instead. It was a hard listen about chestnut stuffing and cranberry sauce and some of the turkeys were crying at the end.

One tough old bird spoke up. “So what you are saying is this. Bob wants to sell us so that people can eat us for Christmas dinner, and we have to stop him so the farmer can sell us to people who want to eat us for Christmas dinner?”

Lucy and Lucky looked at each other. This was not going well. “We just want to stop Bob. What you do after that is up to you.”

The turkeys huddled together and talked amongst themselves before the old bird spoke again. “We have decided to escape. We would like to fly away. But the farmer clipped our wings so we will have to run away instead.”

The ducks knew that the Turkeys would be caught sooner or later. But they felt sorry for their feathered friends and promised to help. So when Bob came back and opened the shed door he was in for a surprise. He had a fresh bag of grain to tempt the turkeys back into his truck. But none of them moved. Then the tough old bird charged straight at him. Tabby pounced and knocked his torch out of his hand. Lucy and Lucky made an awful racket and Hannah dashed between his legs and tripped him up. All the turkeys escaped and hid in the ditch.

Chapter 6

What about Tiger? When he got back to the farm he went in the house and found Sophie. She was knitting a new coat for Hannah. Tiger grabbed the ball of wool and ran off. Then he stopped and waited. As soon as Sophie came after him he picked up the wool and ran off again. Sophie understood that he wanted her to follow him and called for her Dad. Together they followed Tiger across the farmyard, through the barn over the field and down the road to the old trackway. And at the bottom of the trackway they found Bob with Lucky, Lucy, Hannah and Tabby, but no turkeys.

Bob was arrested and taken away. The animals all went back to the farm. But the turkeys were nowhere to be seen. When everybody had gone they crept back into the shed and lived there, eating the sack of grain that Bob had brought until Christmas was over. Then the tough old bird led them all on a march back to the farm. They went down the road and caused such a traffic jam that the TV news sent a reporter.

When everyone saw the March of the Turkeys on the TV news lots of people wanted to buy them and fatten them up for next Christmas. But most of the turkeys became pampered pets and lived happily ever after. Just like Lucky and Lucy, Tiger and Tabby and especially Hannah, who was weak and often afraid, but always brave when it mattered. And her friends loved her all the more for it.