There’s a goat in the backyard!

Ever since my kids were born, I have attempted, each April 1, to persuade them that there’s a goat in the backyard.

Strangely, this never works, and somehow it works even less every year.

But I keep trying.

You know, the kids today, what with the emojis, you’d think just sending this to the family chat would do it -

‼️🏡🐐

Daughter-in-law, unfamiliar with tradition:

Is this a guessing game?

Son, much more familiar:

I am unfortunately very experienced at this guessing game... If you really wanted to cut deep you could say there's a GOAT in the backyard and photoshop a picture of Ohtani in there

I can beat that! Kids, there are THREE GOATs in the backyard!

three GOATs in the backyard

how’d that go over?

This went about as well as previous attempts to prove there was a goat in the backyard; I feel obliged to document some of those here for posterity. Also to remind me next year to try it a different way.

2025

AI image creation, sadly, begins to destroy actual creativity

2023

The only thing that kept this Augmented Reality video from being believable was the way the goat seemed to be on both sides of the fence. Other than that, surely this would have worked …

2014

(Cathy’s handiwork. At previous house. She got me.)

2013

I was away, but fortunately the security camera caught something fifteen seconds in….

Cathy, knowing I was in California, helpfully chimed in:

2012

I can’t believe this didn’t work. Come on, it’s literally true.

Much Much Earlier, Maybe 2002

Actual aforementioned son, actual goats, and my actual Dad, and I hope he would have approved.