Yes, I know you think I'm being paranoid about this but I'm sure that Lucy the tabby, who I suspect was spying on us the whole trip, had a paw in this sculpture.

First, the sculpture is pretty much how she sees her own body in the mirror. At 8 kg of solid kitteah this is of course a delusion, but let's go with it. But the big clue is on the plinth. I'm not sure whether you'll be able to read it when I shrink the image down (or read Italian), so allow me:
"Il mio slancio ogni ostacolo abbatte"
Roughly, "My momentum batters down every obstacle".

You may remember from high school that momentum = mass * velocity.

El Gato may not move that fast, but with her mass she doesn't need to. Nothing stands between her and her breaffass at 03:30 other than hurling herself at my legs with a loud "Meeeoooooooowwwwww!"

I suspect that she had this statue erected to remind us of that.