Galarian Meowth is literally a European wildcat the larger, hairier, and fiercer ancestor to our domestic cats.

Interesting they decide to bring up this obscure and overlooked creature as it’s often mistaken for its domestic and feral cousins. But today I will teach the several key differences between the two and maybe this will shed light on the design choices for this new pokemon:

The Scottish wildcat differs from a domestic cat by its heavier, more robust skull and longer limb-bones. It is also larger in body size, but with a shorter gastrointestinal tract. 

Its fur is distinctly solid-striped with a tabby patterning. It has a bushy, ringed tail that is black at the tip, blunt, and without stripes. 

It does not have any white markings like a domestic cat, neither stripes on the cheeks and hind legs, nor spotted undersides or coloured backs of ears.

The species is completely wild, it instinctive avoids human contact as often as possible, prefers the open countryside and remote wilderness to the suburban/urban its kin thrive in. They’re also considered virtually impossible to tame and make terrible pets.

They’re temporarily monogamous, only choosing one partner per mating season. They also have a distinct mating season, unlike domestics.

Wildcats are a protected species throughout their range and suffer decline from habitat loss and hunting,(mistaken for feral cats), but the biggest contributor is hybridization with domestic felines. This ruins the purity of the wild form’s nature and also greatly increases the chances of disease spreading in wild populations.

Feral cats, on the other hand, are considered widely destructive vermin and a serious ecological threat outside the U.S. for good reason. They kill a wide variety of small animals at a massive scale,(leading to the endangerment/extinction of countless species), and also spread diseases like Toxoplasmosis and Rabies which threaten many other animals.

Being an invasive species, they’re often removed,(captured or killed), whenever possible in spite of widespread controversy by cat lovers/activists. Who are generally blind to the scale of destruction they cause to native wildlife. (it’s largely accepted in Australia/New Zealand though)