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Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Saturday, June 01, 2013

some great finds in dog proverbs

I'm writing an article on proverbs today, and while researching I found some on dogs that I had never seen before.  Have you seen any of these?

Talking too much arouses the dog from sleep. – Trinidad
The dog that defecates in the road forgets all about it, but the person who has to remove it does not forget. - Martinique
- from Lafcadio Hearn, "Gombo Zhebes": Little dictionary of Creole Proverbs

Caress your dog, and he will spoil your clothes – English
Too much pudding may choke a dog – English
A fence lasts three years, a dog lasts three fences, a horse three dogs, and a man three horses. – German
A modest dog seldom grows fat. – English
- from John Barten, ed., A Select Collection of English and German Proverbs, Proverbial Expressions . . . 

He loveth thee as well as a dog loves onions. – Italian (which would be not a whole lot, I think)
Why does the dog lick the pan? Because he cannot eat the Pie. – Old British
- from James Howell, ed., Lexicon Tetraglotton, an English-French-Italian-Spanish Dictionary

3 comments:

parlance said...

It's not a proverb, but there is a saying about the weather in Australia that it's 'a three dog' night, meaning it is so cold it would take three dogs sleeping with you to keep you warm.

curator said...

Hi Parlance. That one I actually had heard, and I think it's most evocative. I keep looking at the cats and wondering how many it would take to keep me warm.

parlance said...

Curator, I think one cat, because they are so smart they would move around to new spots all night if they detected a cooling in that area of your body. Ha, ha! As if a cat would be so obliging.