Designing a cute animal

I really struggled with this latest post for 2 reasons:

1. I don't know animals that well.  So I tried dogs, bunnies, pigs.

2. I was concentrating so hard on trying to make it mechanical that it lost it's character and I find it hard to make something cute that is mechanical.

I'd really love some critique on how to push these.

I did one which I think is "ok" which is the dog design at the bottom.  I suppose pushing to incorporate shapes, character, AND make it mechanical feeling was tough.  But, hey, 1 day i'm happy with the results.