Actually the lion is very versatile, as a number of people in the Poser community have done some great things with it (morphs, remapped textures, and other modifications).

Perhaps the DAZ panther would be closer to your needs.

On the other hand, if I'm thinking of the same creatures you've read about, they're related to cheetahs ....

Imagination Works sells a Poser cheetah.
bloodsong has a free cheetah character for the Poser cat over at 3D Menagerie.