Agree about the tail, and i thought similar about the eyes. First i thought the cheeks would be the eyes. Only after staring longer i noticed those strange black slits are meant to be eyes : )

Edit: Making the cheek lines lighter so contrast to skin is small would do as well. (I guess not many would share my confusion here at all)

Cheeks still grab more attention than eyes, so i made them even lighter:

That's much better for me, now my focus jumps on the eyes first.

Not sure about the tail. The thicker line is not equally thick everywhere which is bad and looks noob. It's a typical pixel art limitation and i lack experience so can't help, but now i think the thin tail from initial image is better.

To judge this it is important to have enough empty space around the image, which also matter for presentation of your work. I use dark color theme for the forum, so the surrounding of the image is very dark and this causes irritation with the tail because it is at the edge. Make sure to give your good work a proper ‘frame’ before you show it to others. ; )

My brain is having problems making out those single pixel lines to be eyes too. It can't really decide whether they are outlines or shapes. They are also quite tall, which then makes you confusedly search for the focal point. I think they're just one tad too far away from inducing pareidolia.

Cute character nevertheless ?