Eevee: Cat, fox, or something else?

[Caitlin]

I got into a heated debate with a friend of mine about Eevee and its evolutions about what animal it's mostly based off of, taking both the base pokemon and the evolutions into the equation.

I'm convinced that it's mostly based off of foxes considering its bushy tail as well as the canine features of its evolutions. However, my friend points solely to Espeon and the puff of fur around its neck as the reason it's based mostly on cats. I can see his point on Espeon, but I'm still not convinced.

So, what do the users of Bulbagarden think on the subject?

 

[Oswin]

I always thought Eevee was a Fox, and Jolteon being a Dog. Espeon has to be a Cat. Not sure about the others.

Maybe it changes when it evolves into a different animal?

 

[Pyrax]

Personally, I believe that Eevee is a chimera with canid, feline, and vulpine features, which Eeveelution possesing more features of a certain group (for example, Espeon looks more like a feline than Jolteon).

 

[MizuTaipu]

In my opinion:
Vaporeon, Espeon, Leafon, Glaceon: Cat
Flareon, Jolteon, Umbreon, Eevee: Dog

 

[Arc Blader]

I've always thought of the Eevee family most closely resembling canines, although there are a few catlike undertones here and there.
In the end though, if I was asked "What kind of animal is Eevee?", my answer would be "A Pokémon." That's really the most accurate description there is.

 

[Composer]

While the Eeveelutions vary in what animals they are based on,Eevee itself looks like a Fennec fox.

 

[Miar]

Eevee's genetic code is unstable. It's a mish-mash of various mammals put together into one Pokémon.

 

[Ranger Jack Walker]

No one said it has to be based on a single species of animals. :|

 

[winstein]

Espeon is actually really more of a feline, but all the others are more canine because of the shape of the tail, which are all bushier in comparison, so I am leaning towards more canine than feline.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Stooba]

They have cat-like features and dog-like features. Some think they resemble a fennec fox. I think they're not directly adapted from a single species but have been inspired by multiple felines and canines.

Ugh, by the way... I just don't get why people would think Jolteon is a dog. How the heck is it supposed to look like a dog? I... I am sad.

 

[Bikini Miltank]

Eevee is very fennec fox-like. Its evolutions seem to combine canine and feline traits to various degrees, with two notable exceptions: Flareon remains pretty clearly a fox, and Espeon is a nekomata, a split-tailed demon cat from Japanese folklore.

I have seen it argued that Umbreon incorporates a few rabbit-like features, due to the Japanese association between rabbits and the moon. I'm not sure about this. On the one hand, it's clearly not that rabbit-like. On the other hand, the ears are pretty unusual, and the designers may have felt that making Umbreon too rabbit-like would alienate it from its relatives.

 

[FirestarAsh1]

Maybe it changes when it evolves into a different animal?

I'd have to agree.
I think Eevee and Flareon are foxes, Jolteon is a dog, Umbreon and Espeon are cats, Vaporeon is a cat-fish(like a mermaid except half cat not half human), and I don't know about Leafeon and Glaceon.

 

[Apollo]

It looks like a fox to me, cats are not like evee

 

[Lupin Fiasco]

Personally, I believe that Eevee is a chimera with canid, feline, and vulpine features, which Eeveelution possesing more features of a certain group (for example, Espeon looks more like a feline than Jolteon).

I have to agree with this. Eevee clearly has more aesthetic vulpine features, its tail being the most obvious, but also possessing rabbit like features (the ears, & Umbreon exudes some extra hare features), & feline features which just really showcase when Eevee's DNA triggers the Espeon evolution. Splitting hairs even further, Eevee also has fish features which lay dormant until exposed to the water stone, & also has plant DNA (assuming chloroplasts & chlorophyll for the sake of it) that lay dormant until exposed to the moss rock. long story short, eevee = pokemon of chimerical qualities & unstable DNA ranging from cats & dogs to freaking plants.

 

[Kyuuketsuki]

I never thought of Eevee as an "animal" rather than a "furry cute" thing. Those types of monsters are fairly popular.

 

[frhnxi]

Ok

 

[Chevywolf30]

Something I've noticed about Eevee and the Eeveelutions is that they could be portrayed as feline or canine.

Case in point, Umbreon:

Spoiler: Canine

Spoiler: Feline

I personally like that, it's up to the artist's interpretation/inclination.

 

[PinkIceFox]

Okay seeing this thread is hilarious to me because the other day I bought an Eevee plush at gamestop and my mom asked what an Eevee was and I said

"Okay so they put a cat, fox, and a dog together and made it a cute baby."

My mom nodded in understanding. Which is something because usually my pokemon explanations result in a side-eye glance and an '...Alrighty then.'

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Eevee has been stated by its creator to not being meant to resemble any specific animal to reflect its evolutionary potential, so discussions about what it (and by extension, its equally indeterminate evolutions) is are inevitably going to be rather moot. Still, it's a fun conversation to have, so let's break it down:

For me personally, the Eevee family leans a bit more on foxes than any other animal they share traits with due to that seeming to be the most consistent basis between all of them. That said, I still am reluctant to count the Eevee line as being "true" foxes because they're all still significantly less foxlike in appearance than all the other fox-based Pokemon in the franchise: notably, the Eevee family lacks the distinctive long and pointy muzzle of a fox, with Jolteon being the only one to posses it while the rest instead have a shorter catlike snout. There's also the fact that Eevee and most of its evolved forms posses noticeably long, rabbitlike ears, with Espeon (who posseses ears like those of a fennec fox) and Vaporeon (who has fins functioning as ears) as the sole exceptions. And then there's those which have attributes completely unique to them such as Jolteon's porcupine-like quills, Vaporeon having fishlike traits and a noticeably cetacean tail, Umbreon's rings being bioluminiscent, Leafeon being partially a plant, Glaceon having what's either a natural ushanka cap or Yukki Onna hair, and Sylveon having feelers (which one could interpret as being highly modified whiskers) that resemble bows and ribbons.

Eevee itself in particular to me kind of looks like what we'd get if it was possible for foxes and rabbits to hybridize (as this Zootopia fanart helpfully demonstrates), so for the most part I tend to think of it as a "foxrabbit" thing, though I do occasionally see dog and cat traits in it and its evolved forms as well, to varying degrees. Yes, even the overtly catlike Espeon I see as having a few dog traits (though this one's admittedly mostly due to its Pokedex entries describing it as extremely loyal to its trainer, which is a trait generally more stereotypical to dogs than cats, but hey).

 

[galacticarticuno]

Espeon strikes me as a cat more than a fox.

Eeevee and its evolutions, particularly Flareon, resemble fox to me.