cat’s paw:
(plural: ‘cat’s paws‘)
a person who does indecent (nasty), difficult or dangerous things for somebody else, without any personal benefit or profit;
a person used by another person like a tool; a dupe,
Dawson is a mere cat’s paw; he does anything for his brother-in-law who’s nothing better than a crook.
When the company bosses saw an innocent but over-enthusiastic candidate, they appointed him as their representative and made him their cat’s paw, and this employee did all the dirty jobs for them without ever knowing that he was doing wrong until the police had him.
It is an open secret that the military chiefs are nothing but the cat’s paws of the politicians who make them do things that people in the right mind never do!
