Great thread and 15 years is quite an impressive history - thanks for carrying that over and sharing your experience. I remember reading about a thread which started in a brand- or format-specific part of the forum but got opened to everyone over the years... if that's the history of this one, thumbs up for being open minded - I always appreciate that!
I have to mention that I don't know anything about animal-portraits, but I like the image - I feel like it works well in the square format (was it shot that way?), has nice diagonal lines and shows an interesting expression on the face.It reminds me of countless situations with one of my children on my back or arms, when I'm trying to make them aware of something potentially dangerous (like a busy crossing etc.) but get the feeling they feel safe enough to not pay any real attention to what I'm trying to tell them. 😂
I got a kind of portrait as well (not really, but I love having a bit fun with my titles...) It's called: Bread Bit portrait

Bread Bit portrait by simple.joy, on Flickr
It is a focus-stacked shot made with a lens that was used in a film-scanner originally. It's processed of course but there is no Photoshop involved in the hovering effect. The bread square was probably around 1x1 cm in size. While the stacking is far from perfect, I'd still encourage you to look at the full resolution image on flickr, if you're interested to get a good look at the texture, which is often a main driver for me to get a closer and more detailed look).