I love the use of animals in vernacular — provided they are not insulting to the animals.  “Like a moth to a flame” I simply cannot resist.  I have “parroted” other phrases and have used animal idioms like “as drunk as a skunk”, “ants in your pants”, and “hold your horses”.  British writer Jay Griffiths said:

“Human language is lit with animal life:  we play cats-cradle or have hare-brained ideas; we speak of badgering, or outfoxing someone; to squirrel something away and to ferret it out.”

I have seen a “kangaroo court”, an “elephant in the room”, a “sacred cow”, a “black sheep”, “a fly in the ointment”, “crocodile tears”, and I have learned “a leopard does not change its spots”.  I have tried not to “count my chickens before they hatch”; I have been as “busy as a bee”, a “night owl”, “the early bird [who] catches the worm”, a “fish out of water”, on a “wild goose chase”, “as happy as a clam”, and, once or twice, “top dog”.  Before any more of this animal talk has you going “batty”, I shall end this and employ my favorite phrase, reminding my family not to “wolf down” their dinner.  Afterward I shall curl up in bed “as snug as a bug in a rug”.  😉