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Ok, I admit it, theh eat is getting to me. <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> But what the heck. Let's see how many *expressions* we can come up with that have animals as their source. I'll start with one appropriate for today. (Should we do one per post?)


"The dog days of summer"

Can they just have animal 'bits' in them like in,
"Rattle your dags"
the 'dags' are the yukky brown bits around a sheeps rear end <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> in New Zealand they get hard in the dry summers and rattle as the sheep runs so kiwi farmers coined the saying "Rattle your dags" for when they want someone to hurry up <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

xxx, Ruth

And how about
"Three dog night"

This was not only the name of a really good Aussie band but a saying that comes from the outback.
A 'one dog night' is chilly
a 'two dog night' is cold
and a 'three dog night' is freezing so you need three dogs to cuddle to keep you warm. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

xxx, Ruth :beamedup:

Mad as an old wet hen. I don't know the origin of this saying. But, it sure has fit me today when my vacuum cleaner died for the THIRD time in a row.

Ruth, I can picture the sheep rattling. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Too funny.

Rose

How about,
"The cat's pyjamas" or "The cat's whiskers"

meaning it's just great,

xxx, Ruth :kiss:

and,
"As snug as a bug in a rug"
I always think that one is so cute <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

xxx, Ruth :beamedup:

Hi Rose, they sound pretty funny too <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

It's raining cats and dogs.

Barking up the wrong tree means to be mistaken or focus on the wrong solution. It had its origin in the US during raccoon or possum hunts (an inhumane activity in my opinion)in which the animal being sought would hide in trees while hunting dogs down below would bark up at them to signal their whereabouts. Sometimes the hunted animal would climb from one tree to another, thus leaving the dog down below barking up the wrong tree.

Coincidentally, I just finished a book in which two guys went out raccoon hunting with their dogs and one of the dogs, poorly trained, repeatedly barked up the wrong tree.

~~Leequi

Letting the cat out of the bag, meaning to reveal a secret, goes back to medieval days when piglets were taken to market in bags. Sometimes the sellers put cats or puppies in the bags and tried to pass them off as piglets. If the cat managed to escape from the bag in view of the buyer, obviously the cat as well as the secret were revealed.

~~Leequi

Here's another one. "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth"
From what I have heard: back in the days of yore to estimate a horse's age one would look in his mouth, evidently as horses age their gum lines recede down (or up) their teeth. Guess it was considered in poor taste to question the age of a horse someone was giving you as a gift. This is fun, let's keep it going! sincerely, moose