Not too long ago, a speculative poll was taken that “If you could have children safely genetically modified to enhance their abilities, what changes would you like?”
The expected results were smarter, stronger, faster, healthier, like that. And while those did register, a number of parents wished that their children were more “cat-like” or “dog-like”, especially in their facial features. These people thought that if their children were more like animals in their appearance and behavior, they would be popular.
This led to another survey about genetically manipulating dogs and cats to give them human-like intelligence and the ability to speak.