Regarding the first picture, I like the composition, you might still need to do a bit of coloring, seeing that there is still a slight grey shade of the entire picture. Maybe a bit more of Contrast will take that away as well as separate the white fur from everything else, make him pop...experiment with it
One of the greatest thing about animals, is that they show a lot of emotions with their eyes and face. I was working in California with a Production company, the director was helping me get some inspiration for a comedy I was writing, he said one of the best movies to watch for inspiration are Animated Movies, (i.e. Monster's vs. Aliens, Disney Movies, Pixar, etc) The reason he said that was because Animated Movies need to go above and beyond with their movement, emotions, etc to make it successful.
Animals eyes and posture and demeanor, are great ways to make a story out of a picture! Here are two that I took a long time back.
http://www.photoshop.com/accounts/6...aa/px-assets/d6dd82463fe9439d8367f166cc90b419
http://www.photoshop.com/accounts/6...aa/px-assets/543652bdfc7e405ab4ec60a086d3da9e