Free Sammi and Dusty by Jessie Williams

tasty-looking brown pony nuts into one of the buckets. He popped a few in his pocket too, just in case. He’d never seen special feed like that before coming to the UK, and he couldn’t imagine that they tasted very nice. But then he’d seen the donkey tuck in, and it was clear that Dusty adored them!
    They headed towards Cynthia’s pen with Asha chattering all the way. ‘We can take Cynthia down to the paddock,’ she said. ‘She’ll follow anyone who’s carrying something tasty. If we’re not careful she’ll try to eat all the pony nuts too – and our sandwiches and all the cakes!’
    Sammi laughed at the thought of the pig trying to steal everyone’s food. They arrived at her pen. Cynthia caught one whiff of the swedes and she was at her gate in no time, snuffling and grunting.
    ‘Come on then, Cynthia!’ laughed Asha. ‘Follow us!’
    It was really funny, watching the fat orange pig trotting after them down the yard. Inside the paddock, they placed the swedes in one corner. Cynthia grunted in excitement and started to gobble them up.
    ‘Those swedes won’t last long!’ laughed Rory. He and Jack were busy with bits of wood and netting, so Asha and Sammi went to take a look.
    ‘We’ve already fixed some netting around some posts here,’ said Jack. ‘D’you and Sammi want to go and get the rabbits and guinea pigs?’
    ‘We’d love to!’ beamed Asha. ‘Let’s go, Sammi!’
    As they headed out of the field, Bea appeared with a big tray of sandwiches. Kerry was just behind her, carrying an old rug.
    ‘Let’s lay the rug near the old oak tree,’ said Kerry. ‘That’s the perfect place for a picnic!’
    ‘Oooh! We’re nearly ready,’ exclaimed Asha. ‘We’d better hurry up, Sammi, or there won’t be any treats left!’
    ‘Don’t worry,’ laughed Kerry. ‘There’s plenty to go round. And we won’t start without you!’
    Asha and Sammi rushed off towards the rabbit and guinea pig runs. Asha picked up Custard and handed her to Sammi. ‘Can you take her?’ she asked. ‘We’ll have to do shifts to get them all there one by one!’
    Sammi was surprised at how heavy the rabbit was. She stayed quiet in his arms as he hurried back to the paddock, and put her down in her special picnic pen. Custard started nibbling at the lovely lush grass straight away. Then Asha arrived with Crumble. By the time they’d fetched the two other rabbits and the two guinea pigs, Rory and Jack had fetched the goats and sheep to join the picnic, while Bea and the other cafe workers had added lots of cakes to all the yummy sandwiches.
    ‘Come and sit down, Sammi!’ called Kerry, who had settled down on one corner of the rug.
    Sammi sat down next to her and crossed his legs, just like he used to do in Afghanistan. This picnic was making him feel quite at home.
    Then Rory appeared from the barn with big jugs of home-made lemonade. ‘We used to drink gallons of this when I was a lad,’ he said. ‘As far as I’m concerned, you can’t have a picnic without it!’
    All the bustle and all the different animals made Dusty, Stanley and Swift very curious. They stopped grazing and came over, their ears pricked forward. Asha and Sammi tipped the pony nuts onto the grass, so that all three of them could have some.
    As soon as there were none left, Dusty started to bray loudly, and Kerry put her hands over her ears.
    ‘Sammi! Can you make him stop?’ she asked.
    ‘I think so,’ grinned Sammi. He got up and went to Dusty’s side, then delved into his pocket. ‘I keep a few pony nut here.’
    Dusty was very happy to see the nuts, and munched them in double-quick time. Sammi went back to sit on the rug, and Dusty followed him, gazing hopefully at the picnic.
    ‘I think he want cake,’ said Sammi.
    ‘Hmm, yes, I’m sure he does,’ said Kerry. ‘But I think pony nuts are quite enough!’
    They all began to tuck into the mountains of food from the cafe. As they did so, a little stripy furry creature appeared –