Hmm, maybe I can try to help figure out why this one strikes you better..
(Don't mind my point form, just pointing out the obvious differences that alter the two.)

A Much lower to the ground pose,
The facial features are more catlike- whiskers, eyes,
The sketch stands right out in the middle, no illusions of hiding,

A few more minor details between this and the other, but I agree, your original sketch strikes a bit better than the other. Not meaning to be insulting of course, as you spoke first about this sketch. I know exactly how you feel. So many times I've thrown a rough sketch down, and when I try to go a good job of it later, I lose the essence of the moment. Hope this was even a touch helpful.

True, as this had some real spur-of-the-moment inspiration, whereas the other one, I had tried to just redo this one but inked and colored.

This one you can kinda FEEL it, the other just kinda.....falls flat.

Oh I gave you a gigantic list of reasons why this one is better, and you were all like "i dunno" but this guys you had no problem with? x.x

Because I was sleepy and unstable at the time you were saying it :P
I was awake and alert reading his XP