Considering Judd's backstory, I wonder how they're going to explain Li'l Judd?
Considering Judd's backstory, I'm still leaning towards clone.
Of course, that begs the who, why, and how of pulling that off, but as a kitten with identical fur patterns to Judd mysteriously showing up between the last game and this one and no female cats in sight the options are kind of limited. Judd was carried to this new world by science and may or may not have inexplicably achieved immortality by science, he can have a Judd-kitten by science.
Going into pure speculation with absolutely no basis in evidence, I'm currently wondering if the Octarians cloned him and then the Inklings found him somehow and adopted him. The Octarians always did seem a bit higher tech than the rest of the sea life. But with absolutely nothing to base that on, anything else leading to "Judd got cloned" seems just as valid right now.
Even the name Li'l Judd works just as well for a clone as any child.