Put a cat on it > put a bird on it.
Last November I created a mini-comic about the phenomena of the Cat Bachelor (after overhearing two of my male friends discussing their respective cats at a party and realizing that this was a Thing). Over time cats have become one of my default images—the stockpile of stuff I can doodle repeatedly and never seem to tire of. They are much easier to draw than humans and (sadly) much more crowd-pleasing.
Below, some of my favorite illustrators takes on cats:
The Saul Steinberg Cat.
An Edward Lear cat.
The Edward Searle Cat, though I think I like that fish more.