Jon's Cattier Quiz

Answer: No

The saying "raining cats and dogs" has apparently been around for hundreds of years and there are different theories on its origin. One is that cats and dogs once symbolized bad weather, with cats symbolizing rain and dogs symbolizing wind. Another is that in England, during the Seventeenth Century, torrential rain caused all sorts of refuse to splash up out of the sewers including dead dogs and cats, so "raining cats and dogs" became a common expression meaning heavy rainfall. English playwright, Richard Brome, was the first to record the expression in "The City Wit" in 1653, "it shall rain dogs and polecats".

There have been many recorded cases of strange things that fell from the sky, but luckily for Jon, cats and dogs aren't one of them.

Answer: Lee Marvin

Jon might have been disappointed in "Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday", but I thoroughly enjoyed this hilarious western romp that starred Lee Marvin as Sam Longwood, Oliver Reed as Joe Knox, and Kay Lenz as Thursday. I bet that you, unlike Jon, knew that the word "cathouse" means a house of ill repute.

Answer: Pigeons

"Cat Among the Pigeons" (1959) featured Agatha Christie's little Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, and was the tale of murder at the Meadowbrook School for girls.

Answer: No

I confess that Jon had me stumped on this one. After checking back in my own copy of L. Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz", I found out the Wicked Witch could control talking wolves, black bees, and crows. By using the golden cap, she could command obedience from the flying monkeys three times, but she did not have a black cat. Jon also says that the story would have been so much better if only Toto had been a cat, but I think Jon's just being a smartycat.

Answer: Dorothy "Dodie" Smith

The novel "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" was written by English author and playwright Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smith (1896-1990) in 1956. Ms. Smith owned several Dalmatians during her lifetime, and Pongo in the novel was based on her own Dalmatian named Pongo. Her novel was the basis for both Disney's animated 1961 film version and the 1996 film that starred Glenn Close.

Answer: Eva Gabor

Eva Gabor was the voice of Duchess in Disney's "The Aristocats". Phil Harris was the voice of J. Thomas O'Malley, and Scatman Crothers was the voice of Scat Cat. Adriana Caselotti provided the voice of Snow White in Disney's very first animated movie "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".

Answer: gray

The cliché "all cats are gray in the dark" comes from an English proverb that means people are all alike until they do something noteworthy to set them apart from the crowd. It's also used to mean that appearances are all the same in the dark. This said, what does Jon look like? He is an extraordinarily handsome, big, gray tomcat with bright green eyes.

Answer: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The magical adventures of Harry Potter at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are told in the best-selling novels by English author J. K. Rowling. "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (1999) is the second of the series. Harry and his friends, Hermione and Ron, are coming back from the deathday party of Gryffindor ghost, Sir Nick, when they spot a petrified Mrs. Norris, the cat of caretaker Argus Filch, hanging from a torch bracket.

Answer: Poodle

American author John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1960, and his many novels included "The Grapes of Wrath" (for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1940), "Of Mice and Men", and "East of Eden". "Travels With Charley" was written in 1962 and is an autobiographical account of Steinbeck's travels across the United States with his poodle, Charley.

Answer: Miss Bianca (from "The Rescuers")

Eva Gabor provided the voice of Miss Bianca, the lovely white mouse, in Disney's "The Rescuers" (1977). Bob Newhart did the voice of her partner, Bernard, and Geraldine Page did a wonderful job as the voice of the nasty Madame Medusa. Lucifer, Am, and Oliver were all animated cats. Jon and I thank you for taking his cattier quiz.