A large cat might go over well, depending on the species. One potential issue with the smaller cat, in that most of us don't have the option to add fur to it, could be even less of an issue with a larger cat where the appearance is less "fuzzy" in most places and a normal image map would do even better on it. For instance in this image (which is a crop of something else, don't recall where it came from originally) the only hair that is seriously sticking out seems to be localized to a patch on the belly, the insides of the ears, and of course lots of whiskers. most of the rest of the critter is smooth. (hmmm. there are some grass models out there... anybody experimented with using that as little tufts of fur yet?)