Thanks guys.
The whole point of the shot is the one blue eye and the gloves coming out of the dark - it is a sacred birman after all and this is what they are famous for. I agree that a bounced off flash would probably help but a full on hair light would be too much - kind of wanted to get a sense of mistery here - a cat on stage, never revealing all her secrets, coming out of the dark but still being part of the dark, if that makes sense. I didn't want yet another portrait of a cat on the balck background.

Tyler, I don't know about TV but the hair light in people photography really depends on what you want to achieve. I've done a bit of modelling in my life and was only lit by proper hair light from above very few times. Depends on the artistic effect you wanna achieve and personally I'm not a big fan. I have some diffusers on the way and shall give that a try when they arrive.

Thanks again for all the comments coz they're really useful.