Michelangelo's cats?

I wonder if these might all be illustrations of the Biblical proverb “the race is not to the swift” along with Titian’s leopards. Maybe people are too quick to assume classical mythology was always meant to be serious.

Also, the inspiration for the bronze cats might have been pairs of African bronze leopards when the Indies included both Africa and South Asia.

The bronzes have just been attributed to Michelangelo and here are some links:

http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/news/archive/article.html?5006
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/feb/02/michelangelo-bronzes-sculptures-fitzwilliam-museum-cambridge
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/feb/02/michelangelo-bronzes-discovered-in-pictures
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Two-bronzes-attributed-convincingly-to-Michelangelo/37002
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/02/two-bronze-sculptures-are-attributed-to-michelangelo/?src=me
http://www.arthistorynews.com/articles/3235_Michelangelo_bronzes_discovered http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2936919/The-sketches-prove-bronzes-work-Michelangelo-Tiny-500-year-old-drawing-one-artist-s-students-helps-solve-mystery.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490