I'm certainly not an expert but I'd do a "quick mask" in Photoshop to lift just the picture, then I'd zoom its ears off and repaint the edges using the colour picker to replicate the colour in each small section. You really need a graphics tablet unless you've got a steady hand and a responsive mouse.
As example, I've just extracted a bird on a font in the local church because they want to use it in a Christmas card. Poor resolution, for the web, and although the background here is white, I hold it on a transparent background so it can be overlaid on anything.
Original:
Extract:
Hope that's what you want.
Will let you know how i go on!
Linear Mode
