猫 is a sound-and-meaning character rather than an ancient picture of a cat. In the simplified form, 犭—the side form of 犬, “dog” or “animal”—marks the animal category, while 苗 supplied an approximate sound clue. The traditional form 貓 uses the animal component 豸 with the same 苗 sound element. Because no simple oracle-bone cat picture lies behind modern 猫, this drawing honestly sketches its visible components instead.
A piece of culture
A familiar little cat 猫咪 / 貓咪 is a warm everyday way to say “kitty” or “cat”. Mandarin reads it māomī; Cantonese reads it maau1 mai1. The first character also makes a useful bridge to 犬: when 犬 is squeezed to the left side of many animal characters, it becomes 犭. That family resemblance helps beginners recognize 猫 and 狗 as animals before they know every stroke.