Animal Sayings

Some animal sayings work, like "busy little beaver" - beavers generally seem like they would be busy animals, what with their dam building and all.  But most of them....they're pretty ridiculous.


Sick as a dog What?  Are dogs generally sick animals?  I've seen a lot of old dogs, and even some sick dogs, but I don't understand this expression.

The cat's meow/ The cat's pajamas/ The cat's whiskers  What about all these things are so great? Also cats do not wear pajamas.

The bee's knees Bees do not have knees- so apparently if you told someone you think they're the bee's knees, that means you think they're non-existent?

Raining cats and dogs If I'm trying in earnest to think of how this saying is supposed to correlate with "It's raining a lot", the best I can do is....it's raining so much the water coming down looks like the shape of a cat or dog?  And that's terrible.  This might be the worst of them all.

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth As mentioned yesterday, I do not know what a "gift horse" is...a horse that brings you a gift?  And I have no clue why looking it in the mouth would be a bad thing.

Busy bee/Birds and the bees Bees can be busy making honey, I get that, (even though most of the time they're just flying around landing on stuff, doesn't seem that busy to me) my problem is the laziness.  Clearly out of all the animals in the animal kingdom, we could have done better than the bee for our busiest, we just wanted to get cute with the alliteration and not think about it anymore.  And I also get the pollination angle for the birds and the bees thing- though I don't get what birds have to do with it- but again, having two things that start with the same letter does not equal a good expression.  My alternatives?  "Busy as a being" (as in "human", since that what they actually are) and "sex".

Birds of a feather flock together Are you trying to say "Birds that have the same kinds of feathers flock together"?  Because you're not.

Kill two birds with one stone I get this one too, but jeez.  They're just birds, lay off.

Chicken I don't really think of chickens as being the most cowardly of all animals.  And isn't it enough that we devour them more than any other animal, we have to humiliate them while we're at it?  We already have "Scaredy cat" and cats are pretty jumpy, I'm ok with that one.

The king of the jungle Lions don't live in the jungle.  Good one.

Don't have a cow What kind of sick freak thought of this saying?

To rat someone out Ah yes, the rat- commonly known for exposing its friends or brethren for personal gain.

Eat crow How far back do these sayings go?  Did people actually eat crows to admit they were wrong?

Pigeon hole Yes....you'd hate to be stuck in those holes that pigeons are always hiding out in.   Either that or....I don't even want to know what else a pigeon hole could be.

There's more than one way to skin a cat Again, who is the sick freak who came up with this?  Why was anyone skinning cats? And what other way could there possibly be aside from using a sharp object?  Disgusting.

Piggyback What does this have to do with pigs?