Crossword Genius

Pour down household pets? (4,4,3,4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

rain cats and dogs

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'pour' is the definition.
(synonyms)

'down household pets?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'down' could be 'd' and 'd' is present in the answer.
'pets?' could be 'dogs' (I've seen this before) and 'dogs' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for rain cats and dogs that I've seen before include "come down hard" , "Pour" , "Pelt" , "To fall heavily" , "bucket" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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