A friend posted the cat photo (below), a while back. Of course I had to find Vermeers "Girl with the Pearl Earring" to compare the photo to the portrait, actually a "tronie" (a new word to me!)
At this google link is a link which leads to "Virtual Mauritshuis, the first Gigapixel museum in the world".
https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/what-s-on/mauritshuis-at-home/virtual-mauritshuis It is one amazing website whether or not one is an art lover. It is possible to zoom in on individual works of art to inspect them as close or closer than the eye can see; as well the descriptions that accompany.
Perhaps some of you already have the app. I'm sharing the link to Mauritshuis, anyway, for those who do not have.
To see the portrait (360 viewing) at the Mauritshuis museum go to the link and select "open the virtual Mauritshuis" then "free exploration" and there is an index of rooms at the bottom where you can find room Vermeers room 15, the location of the portrait. (When I went to the Mauritshuis link, the portrait was located at the bottom of the original page, which provides a link directly to it in room 15. Don't know if that was because I was searching for the portrait or because that is how the page shows for everyone.)
Given Vermeer'portrait is said to be a tronie it might seem that he used a cat as his model. However, having watched a movie about Vermeer, it is clear who was the model - the tronie aspect simply being everything other than the person which makes the portrait a "type", thus a tronie.