For some reason I was curious about the saying, “curiosity killed the cat.” Is it true? Is there really a cat on record that died because it was curious? Did it lick a light socket or crawl into a microwave? Why did curiosity kill the cat but not the dog, rabbit, mouse or orangutan?

I began my search on google and found that human curiosity is killing cats but that’s not the issue. The cat’s curiosity is what killed it, so I continued my search.

I found a site that discussed skinning cats (referring to the phrase “there’s more than one way to skin a cat”) but while it was entertaining, I didn’t learn much.

All of the search results simply quoted the phase without discussing its origin.

While searching for an answer to this question, I’ve met up with another that nearly caused my brain to explode. Why didn’t Curious George teach the dying felines how to avoid the cold fingers of death? A sinister plot by the man with the yellow hat to send them to an early grave? Now I’m curious.