Seeing red

Do not get between Pom-Pom and a tomato!   If you try to, you will discover that she's not quite the classy little lady we all thought she was.

Pom-Pom looking down her nose at us - as usual

I had three cherry tomatoes and an ordinary size one, all of which had got softer than I like them to be.  So I threw them down into the run and waited for the entertainment to begin.  As usual, everyone went rushing over to see what type of manna had appeared from above.

Normally when Pom-Pom runs, she gallops straight into things.   Her bouffant hairstyle acts like a skid lid and prevents any damage to her skull.  But where tomatoes are concerned though, it's different.  She moves like greased lightning, making a bee-line straight for said tomato, grabs it and runs.

Now as Tu-Tu knows from extensive past experience, if you get to a treat first and run off with it, the rest of the mob will chase after you.   Doesn't matter that there's enough treats for everyone.  They all want your bit.   But somehow nobody seems to notice when Pom-Pom is the one with the treat in her beak. 

It could be that they are used to her being the last one to locate a treat and so missing out on most of it.  Maybe they just can't credit her with being the one to swoop in and nick it.   Personally, I think she's simply donned Harry Potter's Cloak of Invisibility.

But for Pom-Pom it doesn't end there.   She then finds a corner where she can put the tomato down, while shielding it with her body.   That way she can eat it at her leisure and not have someone else pinch it from her and run off with it.  They simply won't be able to get at it.   Today's convenient location was the angle made by the fence and the compost bin.   Punk had a go at getting it, quickly realised she couldn't and rushed off to pinch someone else's.

Once all the cherry tomatoes had been eaten, one by one they turned their attention to the big fruit.  But that was going to take a bit more effort to break into, so they gave up fairly rapidly.   Pom-Pom, however, did not.   This was, after all, more of that delicious red stuff that she loves so much.   So she pecked and pecked, grabbed it and shook it, took it for a walk and eventually managed to break the skin and get to the good bit.

That was when the rest of the flock took a renewed interest and came over to "help".   Pom-Pom was surrounded!  But did that bother her?   No it did not.   She simply pecked various heads as their owners' beaks came withing licking distance of her tomato.   It didn't matter who the beak belonged to, it wasn't getting any more than a brief encounter with this particular treat.

When I left, Pom-Pom and her tomato were still surrounded by the rest of the flock.  And she was definitely taking no prisoners.