Raining Cats and Dogs

"Actually, it's just raining dogs. Hallelujah."

This week we had a couple of days of beautiful, sun-drenched hammock weather, followed by a return to the rain. It's like the weather is trying out rough drafts of summer. We even turned the air conditioner one day. Now it's back to raining cats and dogs.

I wondered today where that saying came from, "Raining cats and dogs." The most compelling and well-researched answer said that the saying comes from 17th or 18th century England, where storms occasionally would wash dead animals down the streets along with other debris. That's both interesting and disgusting. Thank you, Historians!

You can see the article I found here, where there is a particularly funny debunking of the theory that animals would fall through thatched roofs when it was raining hard. "Dogs don't live on thatched roofs!" Ha ha ha.

Meanwhile, it's raining candy wrappers and empty water bottles around here.