Cleanest, great eyelight with both kittens. Too many people forget to go for that, particularly with animals.
Abbey looks underexposed to me, but you seem to have added a lot of vignetting that makes it seem dark.
If your not shooting RAW, then consider trying it. If you'll Expose To The Right (right of the histogram) and then pull the level down in RAW conversion, you'll get less noise, higher dynamic range and better colors. In-camera jpeg limit your camera's capacity.
The in-camera jpeg of this coyote hunting looks washed out an flat, but this RAW conversion, with Contrast raise, S-curve applied to RGB curve and a little added Vibrance really pops:
Coyote hunting in evening sun by
dcstep, on Flickr