The Meercat Project, Part 2: Bust of Meercat

A few nights ago I made a coil/slab pot that was intended to be part of a vessel with a sculpture of a meercat's head on top.  I managed to sculpt a meercat that I'm happy with, but the pot started to collapse when I put the sculpture on top.  It may need to dry more or it may be the wrong shape.  I tried to give it some contour by having it grow narrower from the base and then wider again, but this may cause the pot to be too structurally weak to hold the weight of a sculpted meercat.  I attempted to remedy the problem by adding another strip of clay to the weak, concave part near the base, but I'm not sure if it's going to work.  I may need to forget the pot and just make a bust of meercat.

My meercat source page: