Favorite animal?
For me, it is the cat.
When I lived in a garden apartment in Dallas in 1979 there was an unaltered male known as Timmy who recognized the sound of my car (then a Chevette) as I entered the lot and ran to the door.
He would show up every two or three days to check up on me, often spend the night after sharing some cooled food. If he needed to go outside to relieve himself at night he would jump on the pillow and knead it and meow, using rudiments of language.
Somewhere on YouTube there is a video of a man in north Texas meeting a female bobcat in the woods near his home and the bobcat catching and killing a snake. The man cooks the snake with camping equipment and he and the cat enjoy the meal together and hang out for several hours. This surely must be the way to get to know “wild” animals that are higher in the IQ spectrum.