The way Mr. Blair designed the face on this cat really emphasizes something that one of my AM teachers said- eyeballs with pupils that sit directly in the middle of the iris tend to give a character a vacant or strange look.

When drawing my version, I just couldn't force myself to draw the pupils directly in the center of the iris- they kept drifting towards the direction the cat is looking.
I think my version looks a bit more alive than the one in the book, but that also makes it off model.