Animal Insting

Doggy Phrase #1:  sick as a dog

This phrase means that you are puking a lot.  Or at least that is what the phrase meant at first.  The English started saying "sick as a dog" a long, long time ago, like back in 1705 or maybe even before that.  And when the English say someone is "sick" they mean he is puking.  If someone has something else wrong with him, then that person is "ill."

Later on, the Americans started using "sick" to mean a lot of different illnesses that don't make you puke at all.  I don't know why the British would use this word one way and the Americans would use it a different way.  Sometimes these things just happen.

But anyway, why would someone say that puking is being sick like a dog?  Well, that's easy to answer!  Dogs puke a lot, and there's a good reason for that.  First of all, mother dogs puke up food for their puppies to eat.  This is called "regurgitating," but it's easier to just say "puke."  This food that mother dogs puke up is partly digested, so it's easier for the puppies to eat, and that's how puppies learn to eat real food instead of just milk.

Also dogs like to eat all kinds of things, but some of them are weird and don't agree with the dog's tummy very well.  So when that happens, the dog just pukes them up and that's the end of the problem.  Or anytime, really, that a dog's tummy feels icky, he can just puke up whatever is in it, and then he usually feels better.


Doggy Phrase #2:  every dog has its day

This phrase is fairly positive, because it means that everyone will eventually get a chance to do something special, such as win Best in Show.  Of course, it's kind of hard to believe that it's really true, because I know lots of dogs who have never won Best in Show.  But I guess maybe they still have an outside chance of doing that.


Anyway, that's all the doggy phrases for today, but here's a nice proverb from India that I found.  I just hope that if I have any British readers, they will not be offended, because I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings!



Doggy Proverb:


Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun.