Meerkats :)

I thought this effect looked neat, but maybe a little too dark?

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I actually much prefer the original

Gotta agree with Irreverent on this one...too much on the second shot.

If I may be so bold, between this shot and the other shot you have posted, I think the PS techniques you are trying would really be better suited to landscapes and such...they really don't work that well with "faces" (human or critter). This is just my humble opinion of course, but as a Photoshop junkie myself to me there is a time and a place for surreal images, and the shots you've posted so far really don't fall into that category. If you were to try this with the right landscape shots though it would probably work really well.

Just my $.02,
Jim