Thanks to my friend, Cindi, for reminding me of the expression, “monkeying around,” after reading the April post about Easter rabbits. So, I decided that this month would be perfect for looking at more animal expressions. I have collected a few over the years, many of which I have no idea why they exist. 😕 I put those in bold so YOU can clue me in😊.

• “Happy as a clam” (because the clam shell looks like a smile when closed, yes?)
• “Stop monkeying around” (stop acting like a monkey = goofing off?)
• Why is that tool called a “monkey” wrench?
• “Get your ducks in a row” (is this because baby ducks follow their parents when swimming?)
• We have a lot of expressions using dogs:
  • “dog day afternoon” (sleepy)
  • “dog eared” (pages of a book or magazine have been turned down so much that they are no longer crisp, showing that they have been used a lot (is this because a dog’s ear can bend this way?)
  • “dog tired” and “my dogs are tired” (meaning my feet are tired?)
  • “hair of the dog” (drinking more alcohol the morning after drinking a lot to relieve hangover symptoms) – short for ‘hair of the dog that bit you’ (who knew?)
• “Two shakes of a lamb’s tail” (to move quickly ?)
  • Is there some reason that two shakes of the lamb’s tail are better than one shake?
  • And who pays attention to how many times a lamb shakes its tail??
• “Scaredy cat” and “act like a chicken” (to be afraid)
  • I completely understand these expressions because both types of animals run after they hear something scary. Prey versus hunter, eh?
• “Sheepish” (to be shy)
  • I guess this is similar to the “scaredy cat” expression? Sheep, a typical prey animal, huddle together to avoid a predator, which would appear as though they are shy, I guess?
• More about cats:
  • Why is the poker pot called the “kitty”? 
  • “Don’t let the cat out of the bag” (don’t tell a secret)
    • What???  Who puts a cat in a bag, anyway??
• “Crickets” – (extremely quiet)
  • But why??? I get “dead silence” and “radio silence” (military?), but crickets are not quiet; they are LOUDDDDDD !!

Let me know if I have missed any!!