Oh sure you can story sci-fi justify it away. I am not saying it is even much of a stretch, but it still is pretty darn weird when you have what is clearly mostly a cat, because people recognize it as a cat and are not going to think about the "sci-fi or fantasy in world explanations" cause it is still a freakin' cat that it is based on.

Personally I never even thought of it or cared, but it is weird now that I think about it lol.