Half truth, it doesn't occur that rapidly in species which have relatively long generation times, if you did further research you'd see that this only possible in fast reproducing species like bacteria, viruses, and insects.
You have the same book, the book doesn't mention any domestic cats, if you look closely, the tail is fairly bushy at the ends and perhaps the ears have a point on them, normal house cats don't have pointed ears and it does look bigger than a normal moggy.