You know I love this look...it's the one I used to come back on the site with. I think I would have opted for the effect only on the animal, or perhaps you tried that and didn't find it pleasing.
"Where there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see." ~Dorothea Lange
Looks great...that little plug can do wonders eh!!