Reading that wiki entry (thanks for that, I didn't get that far before) two things occur to me about portraying them as cats. 1. the issue of the faces being black or white is avoided and 2. cats are cool (hepcats) on the Ethiopian Serenaders side. I don't understand now why the "musical party" - more sedate is still portrayed as cats (2 white ones and another w/a white face - maybe I'm reading too much into this!)