"Got my Goat!"

Move cache to cache, visiting and discovering, enhancing the caching experience world wide.

I just got a message for a cache owner saying that one of my trackables which was listed as being in their cache does not appear to be there anymore and so they were marking it as MISSING, “This Got my Goat!”.

By definition, this means 'to make someone annoyed or angry' and if you have any trackables, you are probably aware of what this means.

So, where did this saying come from?

A commonly repeated story which purports to explain the phrase's origin is that goats were placed with racehorses to keep them calm. When ne'er-do-wells who wanted the horse to race badly removed it, that is, they 'got someone's goat', the horse became unsettled and ran badly. That's just the sort of tale that gets the folk etymology juices running. Let's just say that there's no evidence to support that story.

So, the poor goat got to take the rap. Unfortunately, the use of the word “goat” has now taken on this as one of it's new meanings. By Sub Definition: the “goat” is a metaphor for your state of peacefulness. When your goat is with you, you are calm and collected. When your goat is stolen, you become angry and upset. Now ironically, getting someone's goat is not supposed to be a quick process but must be done by not directly being mean. The best way to get someone's goat is thus by means of clever annoyance. Conversely, now the "goat" is your good-luck charm, mascot, or calming goat.

Historically: The phrase is recorded in a Navy story in 1905, followed closely by a Navy-Boxing story, and followed by many references in boxing. It was also used commonly in baseball reporting starting in 1907. At the time, it meant something like, losing the will to compete. Although some early references do seem to mean, anger, that was not the dominant meaning earlier. The phrase may have originally relating to ship's goats kept as mascots. That being said, “getting your goat” with reference to “an old English (Welsh?) belief” that keeping a goat in the barn would have a calming effect on the cows, hence producing more milk. When one wanted to antagonize/terrorize one’s enemy, you would abscond with their goat rendering their milk cows less- to non-productive.”

So what does this mean to us today? It means you have found one of our trackables and we would appreciate it if you were to log it as “Discovered” and list the cache so we can follow it's progress or, you can log it and “Pick it up” into your inventory, visit it to other caches and finally log it as “Dropped” when you leave it in a cache. This is all part of the game and enhances the experience, KEEP OUR TRACKABLE MOVING.