[Ads-l] Saying: The cat / dog is always on the wrong side of the door

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Many quotation references include the following statement from Ogden
Nash: A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.

I was told by a cat enthusiast that a similar saying about cats
appeared earlier. Indeed, there is a 1907 remark about cats, but the
earliest instance I found was about dogs in 1898.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/07/02/wrong-side/

[ref] 1898 November 11, Manchester Weekly Times, Cream of Current
Literature: Some Royal Favourites Dogs and Cats, Quote Page 14, Column
1, Manchester, Greater Manchester, England. (Newspapers_com) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
Cats cannot be picked up and carried from pillar to post, while dog's
rather enjoy change of scene. In fact, the pet dog is always on the
wrong side of the door, and never happy unless he is either going out
or coming in.
[Begin excerpt]

The QI article has some additional early citations, but the best known
instances are from T.S. Eliot and Ogden Nash.

[ref] (1939 Copyright) 1967, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.
S. Eliot (Thomas Stearns Eliot), Poem: The Rum Tum Tugger, Start Page
21, Quote Page 21, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York. (Verified with
scans) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
THE RUM TUM TUGGER
The Rum Tum Tugger is a terrible bore:
When you let him in, then he wants to be out;
He's always on the wrong side of every door,
And as soon as he's at home, then he'd like to get about.
[Begin excerpt]


[ref] 1941, The Face Is Familiar by Ogden Nash, Poem: An Introduction
to Dogs, Start Page 314, Quote Page 314, Garden City Publishing
Company, Garden City, New York. (Verified with scans) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
A dog that is indoors
To be let out implores.
You let him out and what then?
He wants back in again.
[Begin excerpt]


[ref] 1953 Copyright, The Private Dining Room, and Other New Verses by
Ogden Nash, A Dog's Best Friend Is His Illiteracy, Start Page 69,
Quote Page 69, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Massachusetts.
(Verified with scans) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
It has been well said that quietness is what a Grecian urn is the
still unravished bride of,
And that a door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.
[Begin excerpt]

Garson O'Toole
QuoteInvestigaor.com

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