Some animals are quite memetic. Cats in particular have a tendency to try to mimic animal they were raised with. The stories you hear today are "cat think they'

Some animals are quite memetic. Cats in particular have a tendency to try to mimic animal they were raised with. The stories you hear today are "cat think they're a dog" because they pant (for fun, not because of a malady) or chase after their tails (that's how they learned to play probably), but the stories i've heard in a _very_ rural area were more about cat behaving like gooses, cow and even goats (a story about a cat playing headbut with baby goat, which worked until the goat grew and wanted to keep playing :/). I think this memetic ability (which is a trait we consider human, even though it's not) and the fact that a lot of animals initially fail the mirror test could be starting point if this idea.