Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: Bert
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 01:04 AM

Hi Seamus,

My Grandma used to say "Daft as Arseholes and twice as nasty".

And if a guy was really stupid he "Wouldn't know his dick from his thumb if it didn't have a nail on it"

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: Flash Company
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 09:56 AM

Bert... We had 'Thick as pig-shit and twice as nasty!'
Another one which just sprang to mind for any story which was a bit far fetched, 'I'ts all my hind leg and Betty Martin!'

FC

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: Gulliver
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 10:09 AM

In our gang it was "as thick as a bible".

Our mother was forever saying she might as well be "talking to the wall" as trying to get us to do anything, and if she was going out she was "going away with a sailor". The trouble is, a lot of the time we believed she was going to do this!

Another saying was "Ten o'clock (or whatever the time was) and not a child in the house washed--and the streets full of sailors!"

Don

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 11:50 AM

Hi Bert! Grandmas had some beauties, didn't they?

One of my Granny's (in reference to woman who hadn't been seen in the neighborhood for a day or so) "She's away with a Kiltie."
A Kiltie was a piper or a drummer in a pipe band.

I'm gonna be out your way June 13 and 14.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: SouthernCelt
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 01:27 PM

I think the term "reet" originated from the "zoot suit" generation/fad. I've never seen an explanation of how the oddly-fitting "zoot suit" go its name but it almost seems to have been one of those things where someone didn't know how to name it so he just came up with a catchy rhyme. Of course men's clothing in those days all had pleats in various places to help shape them so a really "cool" outfit would be a "zoot suit with a reet pleat". Now before anyone assumes I'm so old that I was part of that fad, let me hasten to add that all I know and speculate on here came from old cartoons and shows on tv.

An old phrase I heard so much as a kid went "He thought like Lit" meaning someone thought one thing but was proven wrong. When I finally got so curious that I couldn't stand not knowing who/what "Lit" was and asked, I was told that Lit was some fellow who "thought he farted but he shit." So Lit was just a rhyme for shit. Once the entire saying was known, adults could use the first part in front of kids w/o having to say a word that they'd rather the kids not start using.

SC

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 01:40 PM

Some that I recall from youth and often still use..I got what Paddy shot at..meaning nothing. Cold as a well diggers arse. He's all boat n no fish, meaning a braggart. They live on the smell of an oil rag, meaning they are poor. I must have a Dot Myra, meaning to wash yer face. He's lazy as Larrys' dog, he lays down to bark.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: Rowan
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 06:03 PM

In our gang it was "as thick as a bible"

And around my family it was "as thick as two short planks"; I could never work out why it was the short planks might be thick. And I do remember friends having to live "on the smell of an oily rag".

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: George Henderson
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 06:30 PM

Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.

This came from a nautical source. the brass monkey was a triangle at the front of a gun boat on which the iron cannon balls were mounted. In very cold weather the brass would contract more than the iron balls which would then roll off the brass frame.

I suppose shaking the balls off a brass monkey came from the same source.

Hair of the dog that bit you.

This comes from the days when rabid dogs were very plentiful. If bitten it was suggested that if you get a hair from the dog and place it across the broken skin there was a good chance that you would avoid getting rabies. I suppose the antibodies in the hair would give some sort of protection.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 07:20 PM

Sometimes, an expression can be a nice rhetorical "up yours!"
I was helping host a wine tasting of vintage ports some years ago in a local restaurant. One of my suppliers, James Symington, was taking audience questions, some of which were fairly inane. One doctor raised his hand and asked, "How long can you age a vintage port?" Mr. Symington's reply: "Isn't that rather like asking, 'how long is a piece of string?'"

For those unfamiliar with wines, he was really saying that if you don't know the vintage, the producer and the shipper, how can you possibly know how long to keep it? Ergo, dumb question.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: Bonecruncher
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 07:32 PM

"Running around like a fart in a colander - not knowing which hole to pop out of first" was a saying in my family.
Colyn.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: SouthernCelt
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 07:49 PM

"Running around like a fart in a colander - not knowing which hole to pop out of first" was a saying in my family.
Colyn.

I suppose that means confused. Our saying was a little more acceptable to most people: "Running around like a chicken with its head cut off" meaning frantically confused, panicking.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: Rowan
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 12:27 AM

"Dropping a clanger" was a polite way of saying that someone had made a serious mistake. It had a simialr meaning as "He may as well have farted in church." "Popular as a pork chop in Jerusalem" was another description of opprobium in my family, although these days I often hear "Popular as a pork chop in a mosque."

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: Mr Red
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 02:23 AM

Well I heard it from a teacher "there are more ways of skinning a cat than choking it with cream and butter" I guess any such fuller explanation has to be over-stated.

My mother always referred to the spring or any milder weather as "a top-coat warmer"

And in advising my sister on the marriageability of young men, grandma quoted her grandma: "Winter 'em, summer 'em and winter them again". Which sounds pretty good advice to me, wouldn't work on youngsters these days!.

And this would be in the "Folk" section as in "Music and Folklore" because it is folk lore.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: Rowan
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 02:34 AM

Another description of a really cold night in our area was "a two dog night", implying it was so cold you needed a dog each side of you to stay warm. And if there was a heavy dew on the grass in the morning it was often said "the rabbi came last night".

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: Mr Red
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 08:05 AM

'how long is a piece of string?'

One end t' other - precisely.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 09:28 AM

Thick as a piss-stone (US _ urinal) and twice as wet.

Where are you going ? - there and back to see how far it is.

What are you doing ? - plaiting sawdust. When I've finished I'll
knit some fog.

As welcome as a turd in a swimming pool, or a bacon buttie at a Bar Mitzvah.

Running round like me arse is on fire.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: Flash Company
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 09:50 AM

Also 'As welcome as a wasp at a picnic.'

Usual reply to 'Where's me Mum',
'She's run away with a Black man!'

Anyone pretending to be an authority on something would be asked 'And what do you know about duck farming?'

FC

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: Rowan
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 06:21 PM

how long is a piece of string?'

One end t' other - precisely.

"Double the distance from one end to the middle" - also precisely is my usual response to that question. It's one of several routine sayings that cause my daughters to roll their eyes. Another occurs whenever a shop assistant asks me
"Are you right?"
and I respond, with a smile,
"When I was younger, the customer was always right."

Occasionally I'll add "Confused, irritating, hopeless and often mistaken, but always right."

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: SouthernCelt
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 08:05 PM

Running round like me arse is on fire.

I always liked the one that went "Running around like their feet were on fire and their asses were catching."

Occasionally I'll add "Confused, irritating, hopeless and often mistaken, but always right."

Down South a lot of people adopted Brother Dave Gardner's comedic expression circa 1960 that went something like: Down here (the South) we may not always be right but, dearly beloved, we ain't NEVER wrong!"

SC

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: GUEST,Chicken Charlie
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 08:55 PM

Southern Celt--Well, I'll take that under advisement. It could be right, because I have been thinking that things like "right as rain" and "fit as a fiddle" are just due to the alliteration involved--I guess rhyme would work too. In like Flynn.

How long is a piece of string? reminds me of an oral history I once transcribed about how something said on one occasion became a common saying in that family thereafter. The subject, when young, was flying a kite when a sudden gust carried it into a tree and really trashed it. The young man was standing there, looking at his ex-kite with a sorrowful expression on his face when the Chinese cook came out of the house, surveyed the situation, and said (non-PC, but here goes), "Wassamadda, stling bloke?"

That became habitual in that family thereafter. Anytime anyone looked sad, confused or frustrated, another family member was likely to ask, "Wassamadda, stling bloke?"

CC

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: GUEST,Chicken Charlie
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 08:57 PM

Oh, and whenever somebody said something hard to accept, my Dad would say, "Everybody believes that, throw a dollar on the floor."

CC

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: Rowan
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 10:37 PM

While it was a common expression around my group when I was much younger, In like Flynn wasn't just a play with alliteration. Up until he died, Errol Flynn was a major 'character', along with Marilyn Monroe, in a vast repertoire of crude jokes that revolved around Flynn's reputation for sexual athletics and the size of his genitalia. This may have been a particularly Oz phenomenon, as he came from Tasmania and was always regarded as an Australian.

I've forgotten all of them, but I recall noticing that they all disappeared from everyone's repertoire within a week of hearing the news that he had died. The phrase you quote is all that seems to be left of that repertoire still in common usage; I heard it only last week.

"Like a rat up a drainpipe" has similar connotations but, when trying to establish whether item A will fit into item B, if it does fit tightly the phrases used are either
"like a thumb in a bum" (relying on rhyme)
or
"like a bum in a bucket", relying on alliteration, as you suggest.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: Genie
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 10:46 PM

Well, my very shy Victorian-age-raised grandma used to say, in regard to something like dusting a piece of furniture quickly, that she'd "give it a lick and a promise."

Always kind of wondered what sorts of .. um .. activities gave rise to that expression.

*g*
G

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: Karin
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 11:21 PM

Down here in Mississippi it refers to Catfish...more than one way to skin the cat.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: Gurney
Date: 09 Apr 08 - 03:31 AM

When asked by a youngster "How old are you?" the usual answer is "As old as my tongue and a little bit older than my teeth." While they are working it out you can change the subject,

My ex-boss says of a neat-fitting job "Fits like a parson's cock in a calves arse!"   Not a terribly sophisticated man.

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail"
is a comment on a clumsy solution.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: GUEST,John from Kemsing
Date: 09 Apr 08 - 12:18 PM

My grandmother on my mum`s side, apart from using a number of more tasteful ones above, often referred to our us childrens` hands and knees being "Black as Newgates knocker". Obviously referring to the London prison.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: Joe_F
Date: 09 Apr 08 - 08:17 PM

My father used to say "drifting around like a fart in the marketplace".   I later found out (from Maurice Samuel) that that was a version of the Yiddish "vi a farts im roisl" (like a fart in the pickle barrel), referring to a fermentation bubble working its way up thru the interstices between the pickles. But that, in turn, was a play on "vi a frantsoiz in Rusland" (like a Frenchman in Russia), alluding to the stragglers in the retreat from Moscow.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: The Walrus
Date: 09 Apr 08 - 09:17 PM

My late Father would sometimes refer to a tight fisted or grasping person as willing to "skin a turd for a ha'penny"

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: JennieG
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 03:59 AM

And there is the description I remember from my childhood of an unattractive woman (at least in the eyes of the beholder) - "she's as ugly as a hat full of arseholes".

My first husband, who came from a small town 100 miles north of my home town, used expressions I had never heard of such as "grinning like a goat chewing a quince", "grinning like a cat shitting razor blades" (very self explanatory!), so-and-so was said to be as slow as "an old gin (Aboriginal woman) handing out Bibles at a christening" - very non-PC these days. And something unusual was said to be "as rare as rocking horse poop".

I guess it is pretty rare.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: Mo the caller
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 06:13 AM

Thank you Bryan for reminding me. My mother used to say "there and back to see how far it is" too. (we lived in London).

We were driving past a circus last night, and out come my younger daughters saying (now used in various contexts) "He wasn't a real clown, it was just somebody dressed up"......????

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: SouthernCelt
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 09:17 AM

My first husband, who came from a small town 100 miles north of my home town, used expressions I had never heard of such as "grinning like a goat chewing a quince", "grinning like a cat shitting razor blades" (very self explanatory!)

Reminds me of a "grinning like..." saying from South Mississippi: "Grinning like a mule eating briars." If you've ever seen a farm animal eating something with thorns or sharp, stiff stalks, they'll often chew with their mouths partially open in sort a sardonic or insincere-appearing "smile" to reduce irritation so the saying makes sense.

SC

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: Flash Company
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 09:50 AM

Another one came to mind:
What time is it?
Half past your pocket! (with the added threat, if you were really out of favour, 'When it gets to your bum it'll strike!'

FC

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: GUEST,Chicken Charlie
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 10:02 AM

I live in a Universe where every so often, seemingly unconnected things connect. In a totally 'other' context, I just learned that Desiderius Erasmus edited a book originally (16th century) called "Adagia," "Adages," containing, in successive editions, first 800, then 1000 and finally over 4500 pithy sayings he had gathered from his voracious reading. With this thread in mind, I thought it might be a kick to see if any of those we've been tossing around appear in it. There would seem to be several contemporary editions--one title is "The 'Adages' of Erasmus." Don't know if I'll have time to track it down this week, so if anyone has more time & sufficient interest, well, there it is. Who knows, maybe Gutenberg Project or whatever it's called has it on line by now?

CC

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: Rowan
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 07:48 PM

Over the weekend I found myself using another from my family. When you 'know' about someone but have never met them and couldn't recognise them, the phrase
"I wouldn't know 'em from a bar of soap!"
was used when I was a child. At around the time I went to uni, I started hearing the alternativ
"I wouldn't know her/him if s/he stood up in my soup!"

Soap sold by the length (a bar, about 12" long) was being replaced by the much less working class "cake" (often packaged separately as 1 cake/package) at around that time.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: GUEST,Joseph de Culver City
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 11:37 AM

I had a friend who grew up in rural Kentucky who used to say 'slick as deer guts on a doorknob'. I thought that expression was peculiar to his family until I heard the same phrase on an LP by The Dillards.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: GUEST,QB
Date: 11 May 08 - 09:04 PM

I dont know if these are family sayings or not but my uncle and my grand folks and my dad and some of my family will say these things alot and i dont know what some of them mean lol

"oh why dont you go run up a ally and holler fish?" sometimes when someone is frustrated at what people are saying or doing

"smart like a furless cat in the snow" lol this i geuss just means stupid

"colder then a well digers ass" umm dunno

"thank you for loveing me?" haha i dunno

"Yes/What Randy?" now this one we all say and i am stumped now that i tihnk about it

"Shut up the wild wine cat!" grandparents say this i have no clue why

and last but not least "Kill that holler child"


From QB

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: GUEST,Desi
Date: 11 May 08 - 09:30 PM

o.o ^_^ oo cool fun lol here are some fun and funny things my family say alot lol some i know some are kinna just been passed down and around our whole family lol maybe you know some of them too ^_^
"your mom"
"An yo mama!"
"Chraming darling just charming"
"Wow thats so very mellon"
"hmmm intoxicating"
"i smack ya!"
" dont make me smack that"
"i bet u wanna"
"try me i dare ya"
"wanna meet me outside then?"
"continue.... yes, yes, blah, blah ,ect, ect, ect we done now?"
"if i want to say something i will"
"oh dear i am all a quiver"
"Why do you wanna leave me?"
"myo? say wah the huh now?"
" your on Kp"
" wow she's walking on moonbeams"
"ones on cloud 9 the other is on cloud 911 HELP!"
and then " your burning daylight"

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: Rumncoke
Date: 11 May 08 - 10:11 PM

My mother's mother used to say 'you've made a lick and a promise' or 'you've given that neck a lick and a promise' to mean that efforts at cleaning had not been vigorous enough.

My mum said that it meant that the washer had just given it a fast wipe over and promised to do more next time.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: Rowan
Date: 11 May 08 - 11:18 PM

My mum said that it meant that the washer had just given it a fast wipe over and promised to do more next time.

This was also the meaning behind my mother's comment "The tide's out!" Used whenever hands were washed only as far as the wrist, when up to the elbow would have been more appropriate.

"The tide's out!" was also used if the beer had too much head (and not enough beer) in the glass, or if the coffee was more than 3/16" below the rim when served across the counter. These weren't used to Mum though.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 12 May 08 - 06:19 AM

I can guess the name of the clone on last night's throne.

My references/details to specific games was removed.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: CupOfTea
Date: 12 May 08 - 06:20 PM

I was raised on poetry and platitudes, and a wealth of family sayings. Most came from my aunt's side & some Pennsylvania Deutch from my uncle's ("Cooking lasts, kissin' don't" - courting advice), with some Irishisms thrown in for good measure. Most of it was common usage in the eastern midwest: Ohio.

"Skinning the cat" was a monkey bars dismount- never heard it for peeling off an article of clothing. The inquiry "cat got your tongue?" was for a child who didn't have a thing to say - particularly when being asked to explain a misdeed. Some Victorian hangovers I heard often "Children should be seen and not heard" and, to caution another adult that there was a child in earshot: "Little pitchers have big ears" I never did get where that one came from, or what the pitchers were that had ears, but it was understandable in context, unlike "Handsome is as handsome does" which remains inexplicable even now. "Not someone you could take home on a dry Sunday" meant your family woudln't approve & implied your relatives had to be inebriated to appreciate that person's charms. I don't know if that goes back to the Prohibition era, or just the blue laws. (no booze sold on Sundays)

"Like taking coals to Newcastle" - for providing a redundant object or doing an unnecessary task. "(Going, doing, using) the whole nine yards" - for doing something completely. In art school I came to understand this originated from a whole bolt of cloth being 9 yards for a goodly number of years. Using it all up was a good thing, as opposed to "Going whole-hog" which had some negative connotations of overdoing something. Then if you were going to do a silly thing anyhow, you "Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb." An encouragement for "stick-to-it-iveness" was "It's dogged as does it," a phrase I used as a screen saver for years.

The euphemisms for crazy were endless, creative and common:"one brick shy of a load" "doesn't have both oars in the water" "elevator doesn't go to the top floor" or even for not too smart "not the brightest bulb in the marquee" "Wouldn't know a dog if it bit her"

We had a number of catchphrases we used around the house that evolved from specific events. "Couldn't see to get the blood off the wall" was the last line of a long droning story an elderly neighbor told - and none of us had been paying attention to the windup to this astonishing comment. Ever after it was used as a prompt to make sure someone was paying attention to what you were saying.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: GUEST,CrazyEddie
Date: 13 May 08 - 09:38 AM

Anyone else have a philosophical monkey quoted to them?

If you complained about something:
"Hard lines! (as the monkey said when he sat on the railway)"

In response to impatient kids:(When! How soon! etc.)
"'Twon't be long now. (as the monkey said when he cut off his tail)"

When we asked Mum to find something, and it was in plain sight all along: "If 'twas a dog, 'twould bite you".

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayin
From: Rowan
Date: 13 May 08 - 06:44 PM

Not involving a monkey but similar;

"I see 't all, said the blind man, when he couldn't really see 't all." was a common expression in my family when there was doubt or confusion. In case this doesn't easily translate across various ponds, lakes, ditches etc, the complete sentence would be written as "I see it all, said the blind man, when he couldn't really see at all."

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: JennieG
Date: 13 May 08 - 08:20 PM

Rowan, a friend of mine used the term "APC" for a lick and a promise, it was a term her mother used - stands for "armpits and crotch", meaning a very quick wash with a tiny amound of water!

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Oct 12 - 10:09 AM

Hi There
I was just doing one of those random google searches and have come across this thread. I just thought that I should let you know that Eileen Vaughan (nee Cattanach)from Heidelberg is well and truly alive and giving me a run for my money as far as social life goes. She's 96 years old and doing amazing. What is beautiful is that you remember her gorgeous little sayings - she has a number of them. Thanks for remembering her, but she is still alive.
Cheers
Lou (grand daughter of the beautiful Eileen Vaughan)

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: Jack Campin
Date: 13 Oct 12 - 11:53 AM

I have actually seen this object:

Cat skinning trough

The page has more detail about how to do it than I really needed to know.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: GUEST,Doc John
Date: 13 Oct 12 - 12:50 PM

In Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston's 'Farmer Labour Train' they sing '...the guys who skin the cats....' Surely not cat skinners. Any ideas?

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: GUEST,Doc John
Date: 14 Oct 12 - 12:48 PM

...will now answer his own query. Obviously a guy who drives a bulldozer, which runs on caterpillar tracks c.f. muleskinner. Good old Wikipedia.
Still don't know about pigmeat however.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Dec 13 - 05:41 PM

My Nana used to say it when she was taking off our shirts before bath time and also said it so fast it sounded more like "skinny cat".

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Skin the Cat' and other family sayings
From: GUEST,Tim
Date: 10 Dec 13 - 06:59 PM

You don't skin a cat, you swing it. And it is not a feline animal. It is a cat o'nine tails, a horrible nine-tailed whip used to punish sailors and leave their backs bleeding. This was done in the open air, for below deck there would not have been room to swing the cat, and in any case the rest of the crew were required to witness the punishment.
This origin of the phrase has been questioned, but it is the only explanation that convinces.