Have you ever wondered how we end up with weird tidbits of advice like: Pickled pigs feet make Philadelphia carpet cleaning necessary, come from? An immediate mental image of a potential scenario that must have given birth to the idea comes forth and is often followed by a grimace.
There are literal published proverbs such as never own a black dog if you have white carpet that implies another carpet cleaning situation. Many people can sympathize with the dog problem, and few think of the hair color and carpet cleaning when choosing their favorite breed of pet.
Let's take an odd Irish proverb: A cow pat is wider when trodden on. Would you really want to be the person who coined that phrase? There is a definite implication about the state of your shoe, and the distance your friends are now making between you and them.
If you look at proverbs around the world, dogs should be very wary. In Italy, it is said Dogs and rude people have no hands, which is a definite step up from their status in China: Give a dog an appetizing name, and eat him. Yes, there is definite potential for traumatized children in that last saying.
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