Assalamu 'alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Ustadh, is it permissible to have an image that has 2 dots for eyes and a dot for a nose and whiskers? Does the realism of the image matter, or does it not change the ruling that these images are impermissible?

Ustadh AbdulAziz al-Haqqan

There is a saying that this is permissible because they don't really resemble how they look. But if you saw the picture, does it resemble a cat? If it does, then don't. Staying away from these things altogether is better.