It’s interesting. I knew of the Canon Cat and that it was called that for a number of years.
Seeing that advertisement puts into context a little bit why it might have been called a “Cat”. Note that there’s no mouse and they emphasize this part and the part Jef Raskin had in originating the Macintosh project at Apple.
That’s what I’m thinking, but with the mouse serving as a proxy for the Macintosh. Jobs took over the Macintosh Project after being removed from the Lisa Project and the vision became something else: the thing we’re familiar with. The Canon Cat is closer to what the Macintosh would have been if this hadn’t happened, and Jef Raskin wasn’t the biggest fan of the Mouse either.
Seeing that advertisement puts into context a little bit why it might have been called a “Cat”. Note that there’s no mouse and they emphasize this part and the part Jef Raskin had in originating the Macintosh project at Apple.