“There’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

Where the hell did that statement ever come from?  Who was having a hard time skinning their cat only to have a friend come along with the knowledge of numerous other ways to “git ‘er done”?  What are the various ways to skin a cat?

These are the questions that enquiring minds want to know.  Well, these are the questions I want to know after the statement somehow found its way into a conversation today at work.

A quick internet search hasn’t really helped.  From what I’ve seen, it could have originated from multiple ways to skin a cat-fish or it is just the bastardization, over time, of a statement about skinning some other animal.  The endeavor wasn’t a total waste of time however.  I now have a new replacement saying for the cat one, I just need a good opportunity to use it:

“There are more ways of killing a dog than choking him with pudding.”  - Some guy on the internet (so it must be true)