One of the most confusing of all metaphorical phrases is this one. The cartoonists have great fun with it of course, but what are we to think as the origin. Where there ever a time where the physical conditions on the planet were so strange that these used to rain out the sky, or did ancestors have rather potent chemicals in their drinks that made them hallucinate this sort of thing?
The truth is no-one knows the origin for sure, but that never stopped speculation, did it!
One theory is that witches are associated with cats and storms, so perhaps when there was a really bad storm it was blamed on a witch for instance and therefore there would be cats nearby - this doesn't really explain the dogs bit though. Another theory is to do with the noise that dogs and cats make when fighting and the link between this and a storm, but no-one knows for sure!
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