I have drawn RL cats, I just don't post them here... but I have to say it's the combination of real cats and fantasy Minousha with brilliant colors that makes me
want to draw.
The poses of the animals here are all based on photographs of real animals. The minoushas are based on cats, of course, the lunaris is based on a border collie, and the destrino on a horse - the stoufix is based partly on a squirrel and partly on a chinchilla.
I look at several photographs for each picture - one for the overall pose, others for the details of the face and tail and fur patterns, because usually the overall pose I like, the animal's shape isn't quite like the one I want to draw. Some example from this most recent picture - the pose for the Suihis and Ksuis picture was of two short-haired cats, and the Minousha are very fluffy, so I had to find fluffy cats to fill in the tail and face fur.