I've not read his work beyond the Jungle Books and those were many a year ago, so I don't feel qualified to make any pronouncements. Thanks for your input. You make a good point about placing things in their context. People are, after all, infinitely fond of taking things out of context.

The Disney version is practically an about-face from the book version I suppose. I managed to connect them in my kid mind with some sort of coherence; perhaps in part because I was so fond of felines (a point I considered making in my post but didn't see a germane spot for) and in some ways a sleek cat was a sleek cat, whether laid back or uptight. These days, I'd probably have a field day cursing at the screen if I were to read the book and see the film again, since I really dislike character-mangling. =D