Interesting photo. Perhaps there could have been a little more space aboave the cat (particulary to include its ears). I would have rolled the ball a bit to remove the barcode and manufacture details..... the shadow on the wall..... I like your idea.
A little too light, I feel. Also, the light from the flash is a little disturbing, and there is no way this picture could have been used on a magazine cover - it would have to be heavily cropped (magazines are generally portrait format, n-est c'est pas?) (3)
cute concept. Wish it was in portrait and the lighting was less harsh. Seems a bit flat like this. The cat needs a bit more room at the top too, for the text to fit. Bit of a crowded composition.
*grins* Nice joke. Cute cat, too, looking appropriately crazed for a sports fan. And on a more serious note - I like the way the ball was centered, the way it weights the picture.
Personally I do not consider magazines to be in a horizontal shape... thats just me though. I think that the point was to make a photo that fit a magazine, not a magazine and subject that fit a photo, IMHO... this is cute... but I think without your "we let the cat out of the bag..." part, this would not have made much sense, and would have been just a pointless ruse to photograph yet another pet. Sorry to be harsh, but if you had wanted to use your cat, I would have gone with some type of a cat magazine. The harsh lighting and shadow on this is rather bothersome... and I don't think this would work as a cover.