This is a fast talking, screwball comedy of the type that was all the rage of the 1930s. The characters ping pong battle words back and forth with each other at rapid pace. It's almost so fast you can't understand what they're saying but the jokes are delivered in rapid fire so it's supposed to be funny and just highly entertaining as a result. I would argue it lacks realism as a result but clearly realism is not the intention with this sort of film. The Katharine Hepburn character is totally annoying but completely of the Marlene Dietrich thread of a sexually attractive, dominant woman who is a strong lead and needs to be tamed by marriage and love, and is actually weak as a result of that despite her behavior. This film lives in that schizophrenic gender war going on in american culture in the 1930’s whereby female characters had a lot of lines a major impact on the plot and seemed to be in control of their sexuality and proud of it but at the same time were restrained by moral censors such that they could not end up single and sleeping around but rather married to one man or killed for being promiscuous.
The inclusion of the baby leopard is almost beside the point. The main thrust of the film is the back and forth mating battle between Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn ending with the two of them ending up together.
It’s escapist and definitely of the time and the thread of the romantic comedy in America.