Raining Cats and Dogs

"It's raining cats and dogs!" It certainly is raining hard in North Fort Myers, FL this afternoon but I haven't seen any cats or dogs falling from the sky...yet.

Did you ever wonder where such a phrase originated? Maybe you already know how it started. I had to look it up and learned these written examples go back to the 1600's:

1651 British poet Henry Vaughan referredto a roof that was secure against "dogs and cats rained in shower"

1652 English playwright Richard Brome wrote "It shall rain dogs and podcasts" in the comedy City Witt

1738 Jonathan Swift wrote a satire on the upper classes titled the Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation in which one of the characters feared it would "rain cats and dogs"