I was trying to make him an orange tabby, but yeah, it would have been confusing. ^^;

This is true, I recall reading that. But the particular text I was working from (via maelicia) referred to him as a bulldog, and due to my inability to draw bulldogs, I just made him a dog. Ditto Mirabeau and an eagle. And you must admit, the name-combination game worked remarkably well with the ones I used. ^^