Composition:
Unfortunately desaturating all but the eyes was a fairly common submission for this theme. I think that adversely affected your score. Your actual framing of the cat is nicely done however. You did a good job with rule of thirds.
Lighting:
Having photographed cats many times, I think you did a good job. While some thought the left side was too bright, I think the cat itself is a rather 'bright' cat. And there is plenty of detail to make up for the bright area.
Technical:
You did nicely here. Very sharp in focus. Good exposure. I would like to see a division between the dark spots on the cat's head, and the background (carpet?). They seem to blend together, but that isn't something very controlable.
Post-processing:
I think this is where the photo needs the most work. Your desaturation is excellent, your contrast of the eyes is nice (not sure what the original looked like). But my complaint is the back of the neck and some of the back. At 1/350s it isn't motion blur, and at f/5.6 I don't _think_ it's depth of field. I believe it's some editing you did to it. either with clone brush, burn or dodge. It just _looks_ edited, and that bothers me. If it wasn't you, my apologies, but I think you'll understand where I'm coming from.
Overall:
I think you have a great capture here. You chose a pretty popular subject (eyes) which hurt your score. The only suggestion for improvement I have is the back of the neck, it appears overly edited. If it wasn't maybe a longer depth of field would help. Otherwise, there isn't much I'd change.
You have to use the cat that you've got, but I think those blazing yellow eyes would have been really spectactular on a black cat - assuming the texture and detail on the fur were well rendered. Nice idea, and a sharp photo.
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