When a cat washes her face with her back to the fire expect a thaw in winter.
When cats lie on their head with mouth turned up expect a storm.
Cats purr and wash; dogs eat grass; sheep eagerly eat and turn in the direction of the wind-point; oxen sniff the air, and swine are restless before rain.
Cats have the reputation of being weather-wise, an old notion which has given rise to a most extensive folk-lore. It is almost universally believed that good weather may be expected when the cat washes herself, but bad when she licks her coat against the grain, or washes her face over her ears, or sits with her tail to the fire. As, too, the cat is supposed not only to have a knowledge of the state of the weather, but a certain share in the arrangement of it, it is considered by sailors to be most unwise to provoke a cat. Hence they do not much like to see a cat on board at all, and when one happens to be more frisky than usual they have a popular saying that the cat has a gale of wind in her tail. A charm often resorted to for raising a storm is to throw a cat overboard; but, according to an Hungarian proverb, as a cat does not die in water its paws disturb the surface; hence the flaws on the surface of the water are named by sailors “cat’s-paws.” In the same way also a large flurry on the water is a “cat’s-skin;” and in some parts of England a popular name for the stormy northwest wind is the “cat’s-nose.”
Chipmunk.
In cold and early winters the chipmunk is very abundant on the south shore of Lake Superior, and are always housed for the winter in October. In short and mild winters they are seen until the 1st of December.
Cattle.
When a storm threatens, if cattle go under trees, it will be a shower; if they continue to feed, it will probably be a continuous rain. (New England.)
When cows fail their milk, expect stormy and cold weather.
When cows bellow in the evening, expect snow that night.