I posted this on another dream interpretation forum recently, and I'm reposting it here to get more points of view.

The dream didn't happen in chronological order. The first thing I remember is being in court with my dad and a young married couple. I wasn't upset, and all I knew was that I wanted them to go to jail. The young couple was explaining to the judge that it wasn't their fault that the goat did what he did, with all kinds of excuses that sounded ridiculous to me. But I didn't really know what it was all about. I didn't know why I wanted them to go to jail, but I did.

Suddenly my dad and I were at what I dreamed was our home. I wondered where my brother was, and I suddenly realized he was dead. I was really sad, and I wanted to cry, but I couldn't. I had to know what happened. For some reason I never asked my dad about any of it. I just sat there and thought about it and realized that I had all the answers hidden away inside myself.

I had a flashback to when my brother had died. I don't think I was supposed to have been there, but as I was thinking about it, I saw it as if I had been. My brother was standing in an open doorway, looking outside to a back yard. It was the young couple's back yard from the court, I knew. I don't know what my brother was doing there, but there was a smallish dog and a huge goat in the back yard. The dog was running towards him, happy I think, wanting to be petted or to lick my brother's face. The goat wasn't far behind, but he was malevolent. My brother didn't seem to notice, and by the time he realized that the goat wasn't slowing down, he no longer had time to move. The goat rammed into him and sent him flying inside the house, and I knew he was dead. Somewhere in here one of my brother's old friends was there. I don't remember what role he played in the dream, but I thought he might be important to interpretation because he used to be my brother's best friend, before the friend became a drug addict and they stopped talking.

The rest of the dream isn't as vivid. For some reason, my brother was buried right there in the back yard where he was killed. This made me very angry. Especially because the goat still lived there in the back yard. The thought of the goat that killed my brother roaming around and going to the bathroom where his body lay sent me into a rage. The court wouldn't do anything to the couple, wouldn't even make them get rid of their goat or have it put down. So I knew I had to kill the goat myself. I chased the goat around the house, or rather he chased me after I'd gotten his attention, but I knew this goat wanted to hurt me so I was in much better shape than my brother in protecting myself against it. It would come at me, then I would dodge it and hit it. The little dog from the back yard was chasing me around too, and trying to protect me. Then suddenly the goat was gone. I assumed I had chased it off. And that's all that I remember in enough detail to write about.

This dream never woke me up. I didn't even remember it until a couple of hours after I had woken up. I know that when someone dies in a dream it doesn't have anything to do with their real death, but this dream has unnerved me. I've dreamed about people dying plenty of times, then just woken up and been relieved. This isn't like this. I'm worried about my brother. I don't think he'll die, necessarily, but I feel like something bad might happen. It didn't really help my feeling of unease when I looked under the word "goat" on another website's dream dictionary, and part of the description says: "To dream that a billy goat butts you forewarns of deceit, underhandedness, and lies."

If anyone actually read all this, thank you, and I would be very happy if you would give your insight, if for nothing else than to relieve my sense of foreboding.

I think that your realizing that your brother is dead in the dream has to do with realizing and accepting that something has "died"; he isn't the brother that you once knew.

The court scene has to do with the idea of judging. Maybe know that you accept the way that your brother had changed, you have to think about whether you approve of it or not.

The goat sounds like it represents a part of your brother's personality that you don't like and feel is dangerous, or something or someone that you perceive as a bad influence on your brother. (Did you know that the image that we have of Satan comes from a horned God of pagan religions that was sometimes thought to resemble a goat? So the goat could represent an "evil side"). - I'm assuming you don't raise goats or have a pet goat or anything like that.

A dog represents loyalty, so there is the idea of you being faithful to your brother and standing by him no matter what.

Yes, your brother's old friend could be significant, because he represents your brother's past.

Maybe you are worried that your brother is still, in a way, being influenced by the relationship that he had with that friend a long time ago.