Meiko used to be thought of as basically winged wolves, I think. At least, that's what I always used to hear before they got revamped to look more like dragons. Even the graveyard talks about how Meiko howl.
Though, even back before the revamp, this picture was still a little bit confusing. The official art wasn't exactly fluffy..
Maybe it was just an implied thing that they had fur? They did look wolflike. They just didn't look furry.