Mouse Doesn't Like GoreTex

I really don’t mind putting sheep fencing up and I never thought I would ever say anything like that. To date I’ve erected about 400m of it to totally enclose our field so we can let the dogs run wild without the fear of them biting anyone. On that note…

We went for a walk along the old Smardale disused railway track. Darwin was riding his bike and Kerry and I had a dog each on separate leads, me Ena and her Mouse. Half way along the track a couple came walking towards us, I can’t remember what he was wearing but she was wearing a bright yellow GoreTex jacket. Mouse started kicking off in his usual way, he’s very protective towards Kerry, and as the woman went by she smiled at Mouse. Mouse obviously didn’t like this and leapt up to bite her elbow. This shocked both the woman and Kerry. Kerry enquired whether he had caused any harm to the woman and on inspection 3 holes made by dog’s teeth were present in the elbow part of the jacket.

Kerry apologised profusely. The woman said that the jacket was only a week old and it was the first time she had ever treated herself to such an expensive jacket. I sensed Kerry was anxious and was having thoughts about whether a complaint would be made leading to Mouse having to be destroyed, or something. ‘Right, well let me pay for this right now’ I said, ‘I’ll transfer it over using my online banking app on my phone’. DAMN TECHNOLOGY!!!! I was dreading asking her how much she paid for the jacket having recently looked at the price of some Arc’teryx jackets for £500. “What’s your bank account No?” I asked, “O, you don’t have to do this. 012658956” she said all in one breathe. She had paid £200 for the jacket, so not too bad but quite an expensive little walk out, and that would have paid for about 100m of sheep netting.

Mouse didn’t get destroyed and if it was me I probably would have used £5 of the £200 to buy some GoreTex repair patches and pocket the rest.