*Very* cute.

Could you try this without the blurred reflection code?

I'm not convinced there's much point to having multiple layer's of 
blurred reflection if you've also got focal blur.

If you just have one rough surface normal with subpixel detail and I'd 
have thought the multiple rays for the focal blur should produce nice 
blurred reflections.
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I'm guessing the reason for the slow down at the joints is due to 
repeated blurred reflections between the legs/ears and the body.
If you do still feel the need to use blurred reflections (instead of 
just focal blur) it's a lot faster to have two piggies with different 
textures:
One little piggy with blurred reflections and set to no_reflection
Another with a simple surface but set to no_image.

That way you only get the cost of the blurred reflections at recursion 
level one - so you are casting 5 reflection rays per pixel.

If you don't do this you could get 5 reflection rays at level one and 25 
at level 2 and 5^n at recursion level n (as a worst case if you were 
stood between two blurred mirrors)

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