Hi Patrick. The first thing that came into my mind was "Milka". A chocolate brand which uses a purple spotted cow in the mountains on their images. I guessed that was a little too intense or your question so here's what I think I'd personally had done to it:
Click image for larger version.  Name: Cowabunga.jpg  Views: 513  Size: 90.4 KB  ID: 437

I used Photoshop CS5 for it, but the principles are pretty much the same in any program:
  1. Removed distracting parts. (Bright white thing underneith the logs and something that looked like a napkin)
  2. Used Shadows/Highlight to recover a little background info. Make sure you don't push it. You'll see a halo around the unedited parts if you do.
  3. Played a little with the tone-curve. Basically I added some local contrast.
  4. Added some contrast over the entire image.
  5. Pushed the saturation just a tad.

That's basically it. If I where to have a special place for this photo I'm pretty sure I'd do a smoother job or perhaps turn it into B&W or use some sort of color-scheme.
If you're having Photoshop removing the tree behind the cow is pretty easy to do. In other programs it will probably also be doable, but you probably need a little bit more time.
I personally don't mind the blown out background. In my opinion this helps with the feeling of depth in the shot. The "fade-effect" that you mentioned. Although I must admit that I don't mind Denise's crop either.

Hope this helps you a bit. I must also mention that I like natural looking shots, so my edits are usually quite conservative? Fun thing is that I like the more artistic style Denise used as well, but somehow I never like the ones I try myself

Jan