There is no reason I know of why human intuition, as an evolutionary tool to enhance the survival of the human species or individuals of it, would evolve to have an implicit understanding of the nature of consciousness. Consciousness is an emergent property of a massively interconnected neural network. We know very little about it, but know enough that we cannot say for sure whether or not animals have any form of consciousness of the kind we enjoy. We have significant evidence to suggest they do not, given that even a small reduction in brain capacity in humans results in drastically reduced capabilities, but it is remotely possible that consciousness is a more simple property than we currently guess it might be. But to suggest someone should get a cat, and then indulge in the rationally invalid practice of anthropomorphization, assuming complex and sentient behavior when much simpler models could completely explain everything… you’d have to put forward a much better argument than “I want them to be nicer, and I think this might make them nicer”.

I have come to accept this.

I have to go, my cat wants to eat food now.

Then again, I’m not a scientist.