I think, Ken, number 2 might work better with a substantial crop. I would try excluding everything except the roo on the right and get reasonably close to it.
You are right about animals having different personalities. When I was a commercial fisherman I would get gulls sitting on the foredeck and waiting for a bit of scrap fish. Each one had it's own personality.
And yes, I also talk to them although they don't always listen to my requests to adopt a particular pose.
But I think the ultimate, which made me question my sanity, was when photographing a hoverfly and I needed a particular angle to enable identification. Eventually I found myself saying 'Come on you little minx, show me a bit of your hind femur'. Now, I check to make sure that nobody else is listening.
