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As with many such questions, the jury is out on this one. World Wide Words offers several possible derivations for the saying, including an old sailor's myth that cats have sway over the weather. Feline meteorological magic, coupled with a symbolic association of storms with dogs, may be the genesis for the phrase. But we can't be sure. The chatty etymology newsletter Take Our Word For It mentions another intriguing possibility. On account of the notorious inefficiency of 17th-century sewage and drainage systems, the streets of European cities were often littered with debris and dead animals
after heavy rainstorms. They had to come from somewhere, right? Animalplanet.com offers yet two more possibilities for this colorful expression. It could liken the racket made by a storm to the thunderous noise made by fighting cats and dogs. Or, it may arise from the era of thatched roofs when downpours would bring cats and dogs dozing atop houses down onto the occupants. A general interest weather site run by Wheeling Jesuit University traces the history of raining wildlife. There are several accounts of frogs, fish, and grasshoppers falling from the sky, usually as a result of tornado-like whirlwinds. Cats and dogs, however,
have yet to make the list. The leading theory seems to be that animals have been associated with weather for centuries. Cats stand for rain, and dogs for wind.
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