some cat sayings from way back

I hadn't heard these!
* * *
Cat Music, Cats' Melody, Cat Singing, discordant yowlings without words or tune.
Who Ate The Cat? meaning, who did something he is ashamed to tell? A gentleman whose larder was constantly robbed had a cat cooked and placed conveniently on a shelf. It was stolen by some one, and probably eaten. He then went around asking, " Who ate the cat?" Of course nobody would ever own up to eating a cat. (Aieee! - Curator)
To Live Under The Cat's-Foot. To live like a mouse the cat has caught. Hence to live by sufferance with some one who is strong or cruel enough to crush one at any moment.

-- from Cat stories: retold from St. Nicholas edited by Marion Hamilton Carter (The Century Company, 1904), pp. 184-6.