I think, there should be cats in the game. Let me explain.
There will be catnip, a new type of plant starting to become visible at around 1000 forage level on a clear day. You will be able to use it as a very bad curio or use in a similar fashion to clover in order to tame lynx and turn them into cat:
Now, what will the cat do? The cat will not do anything, but, it will occasionally scratch it's claws over wooden buildings damaging them a bit. Cat will also sometimes, if it finds a rat, kill it and bring it to owner