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Warning: In case you don’t know it already, today is April Fool’s Day, also known as All Fool’s Day.
Be careful – very careful, because as Wikipedia defines it, April Fool’s Day, celebrated in many countries, is a day of practical jokes and hoaxes inflicted on family, neighbors, friends, and enemies.
An April Fool’s Day prank, continues Wiki, can also involve sending someone on a fool’s errand to embarrass them.
Kids are expert at this sort of thing, of course.
For example, one year my daughter capped the shampoo and conditioner bottles with plastic beneath their real caps so nothing would come out, no matter how hard or long I shook them. And thanks to my usual morning catatonic state, I shook them … um … quite awhile before I finally got a clue. Ha!
Animals excel at pranks, too, but unfortunately, they don’t realize April Fool’s Day comes only once a year, so they’ll spring these on you all year round.
Here are just a few examples I pulled from my memory.
- One of our Jacob ewes, a first time lamber, has her lamb and after we do the lamby clean-up thing, she gives every sign she’s finished.
I watch and watch, assure my husband the ordeal is over, put away the lambing supply box, go back inside for coffee, head out later, and – surprise! – another lamb has magically appeared.
- My co-keepers and I are trying to herd a stubborn moose cow from a holding pen back into the 500+ acre wildlife park free-ranging area.
We yell and wave our arms, she puts her ears back and charges, we holler and run to climb the fence, look back to see her standing calmly, thinking (I’m positive): “Ha! I was just bluffing, you people are so stupid.”
This scenario repeats itself three more times before she trots nonchalantly down the chute.
- I’m rushing to leave for an appointment, and my house bunny Dusty refuses to go back into his cage, even for his expensive alfalfa crackers (he can’t stay out with the dogs). He hides beneath the futon, scampering out and back again, and I try to push him out with a broom.
Ten minutes pass, and I still have my head stuck behind the futon, when I hear scuffling behind me.
Dusty sits in his cage, looking like an angel bunny. Mom, can I have my cracker now?
Care to share your own April Fool’s story?
~ Cherie
