напугал кота сосиской - Is it an idiom?

Question

"напугал кота сосиской" seems to be an idiom. Is it? What does it mean?

Answer 1

Yes. It's an idiom. It means "to scare a cat with a sausage" - a ridiculous threat.

Answer 2

There are some variations of this, like:

Напугал кота сметаной

or

Напугал кота котлетой!

Means "trying to scare a cat with a piece of steak"

Also some other animals are involved to in the similar pattern and meaning:

Напугал кобеля буханкой

Above animals do like a food mentioned, but a hedgehog just doesn't care, isn't afraid of:

Напугал ежа голой жопой

Means "[you are] scaring a hedgehog with a bare ass"

other: напугал козла капустой

or

напугал козла огородом

and

напугал барана новыми воротами

The same attitude can be expressed by a bit different but close analogue:

не так страшен черт, как его малюют

Answer 3

In addition to many examples that Ruslan Gerasimov has made there is

Только не бросай меня в терновый куст.

A phrase which comes from a folk tale, where a rabbit begs a wolf who has captured him, to do whatever the wolf desires except throwing the said rabbit into a thorn bush. Once the wolf throws him there, the rabbit quickly runs away.

Unlike the other variants, which signify the futility of the action, this one actually baits it.