I am visiting my daughter in Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY. If you go on the north side of 11th St., just up from 5th Ave., you will find on a gate that very sign, which means: Attention, weird cat, nice dog.
Now the French speaking population of Brooklyn cannot be very large, although there are a lot who speak Spanish. But I thought the sign amusing enough to report to SDMB.
And we shall take note.
I remember enough of my Middle School French to be confident of “chat” and “chein”, and fairly sure of the adjectives, so it was nice to be vindicated. Thanks for sharing that.
I had a friend in Montana who had the biggest, meanest housecat I’ve ever seen. Big orange tabby, probably 20-25 lbs but not fat. I was warned, “Do NOT try to pet the cat. Don’t even make eye contact with him.” His name was “Homeslice.”
My friend took me out to his backyard and told me to “watch this.” Then he opened the back door and called for the cat, then pointed at a bunch of birds sitting on top of his 8-foot fence. “Bird! Bird!” he says, and an orange streak comes flying out of the back door, straight up the fence, leaped another 8 feet over the fence, snatched one of the fleeing birds out of the air, and landed square on top of the fence, twitching bird in his mouth. He looks right at us, drops the bird on the other side of the fence, then calmly jumps down and casually strolls back in to the house.
They needed a “Beware of cat” sign.
Great neighborhood…I grew up there!
I’m making me a sign. Not that anyone will ever see it but the UPS man and us.
I feel the need to warn folks anyway, just in case.
My cats is bizarre, for reals.
I found a small enamel sign online that says: Chien Lunatique. I got it and put it on the front doo.
It applies as much to the current dog as it did to the previous one.
When the French bookstore in Rockefeller Center (le Libraire Francaise) was closing, I visited and bought a pair of refrigerator magnets – Chat Gentile and Chat Lunatique. We still have them up, because they fit whatever cats we have at the time. I think these signs are popular because their meaning is pretty obvious even to those who never studied French. I’m not surprised the OP saw a similar sign in Brooklyn. And how far, after all, is Brooklyn from Midtown Manhattan?
Here’s the wording for your sign, Beck:
“Attention: chats bizarres, gentils chiens, opossum qui ne va pas”
(Attention: bizarre cats, nice dogs, possum which is not right)
I wonder if these are similar to my Chien Lunatique. White enamel with dark blue lettering?
Argh. You’re right. Black lettering. Why do I remember it as blue?