I Was Thinking... Cat-egories

While it is said, dogs are man’s best friend, cats sure get a lot of press. Our language is filled with references to cats. Anyone who is trying to learn our jargon might have a difficult time understanding so many cat related idioms.
While most people consider cats as gentle animals, they can also be cool cats, hellcats, or fat cats. Each has a different meaning of something unique and distinctive. We seem to use cats to exemplify many human characteristics as well.
If you can’t seem to come up with the right words or the proper way to say something you may be asked if “the cat’s got your tongue.” If you are a nervous person that jumps at every strange sound, you could be called a “scaredy cat.” If you have a tough time coming out and saying something unpleasant, you may be accused of “pussyfooting around” the issue.
If you look smug and overly self-assured somebody might say you “look like the cat that swallowed the canary” or are “grinning like a Cheshire cat.” If you continually are able to escape close calls with disaster, you are like the cat with nine lives. And after all the excitement of escaping calamities, you probably need a “cat nap.”
However, our reference to cats can be the epitome of unpleasant situations. “He was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.” Even our weather gets included when we say it is “raining cats and dogs.” These two also get referenced when our kids get into it with each other, and we say they are “fighting like cats and dogs.”
If you aren’t as strong as others you could be described as “weak as a kitten.” For those that seem a bit sneaky and not clear about their intensions, they may be accused of playing “a cat and mouse game.” If you happen to be a person that isn’t exactly welcomed someplace, you may be greeted with, “well look what the cat dragged in.” Even stealthy robbers are called “cat burglars.”
But as much as cats are loved as pets and were even revered by ancient Egyptians, there can be some negativism associated with our furry friends. If you steal someone else’s idea or try to duplicate their efforts, you could be called a “copycat.” If you can’t seem to keep a secret, you will probably “let the cat out of the bag.” Why anyone would put a cat in a bag in the first place is beyond me. Accomplishing the task would be difficult enough and if a cat was in a bag, won’t most people’s inclinations be to let it out. If you ever had teenage kids at home and went away for the weekend, you probably have a good idea what “when the cat’s away the mice will play” means. But things could even be more serious.
We’ve probably learned the hard way that sometimes we shouldn’t poke our noses into things that aren’t our business. But for the cat, it was even more severe because apparently “curiosity killed the cat.” But the one I’ve been avoiding to the very end could get me in trouble with PETA and all kinds of animal lovers. Of course it is, “there is more than one way to skin a cat.” Who would ever conspire to skin a cat is beyond me. And if you did, what in the world would you do with a cat skin?
I’m just glad I’m not teaching English as a second language and trying to explain all these “cat sayings” to someone else. But I hope you think this column was the “cat’s meow.”
Did You Ever Wonder? — Why would a cat ever be on a hot tin roof?