#nerd mod activated becauss I'm bored at work

[moroniica]

pure cats - certainly no, partially inspired by cats - yes. even the creator, Motofumi Fujiwara, himself stated that eevee "has traits of foxes, dogs, and cats, it is not based on any specific animal" (quote from Bulbapedia) and he made a pokemon inspired by a dog- or cat-like creature he saw once in his childhood.

anyway, some eeveelutions - like espeon - are based on cats purely but that does not make eevee a cat, more like a LUCA for other eeveelutions.

[for the purpses of keeping it simple, "eevee" encompasses all evolutions of the pokémon. thus, if one member of an evolutionary line is determined to be cats, then they are all cats.]