Well my mother and I spend copious amounts of time arguing with our cat and parrot - lots of verbal and body language - and we seem to understand each other even though we're speaking in different languages and the point that they are world class whingers and picky gits
. That said though my mum, sister and I have a separate kind of grunt plus other sounds languages that we use first thing in the morning when we can't be bothered to talk, and goes something like this (rough translation):
'Morning'
'Morning'
'Wassup'
'Sleep well?'
'Dream of anything?'
'Maybe'
'Yeah'
'Tell you later'
'Food?'
'Yeah'
'Guess so'
'Already there'
Whereas the animals are more like:
'Where's my food'
'You call this food'
'I want your food'
'I don't want this food, it's 5 minutes old'
'That's my toy'
'That's mine'
'You're annoying'
'I want to go out'
'I am right, you are wrong'
'It's my way or no way'
'I'm talking, you be quiet'
etc, you get the jist.
So even though we're not psychically communicating we're used to each other...
As for ascension or change - I'm not sure but the idea that animals do not spiritually evolve/de-evolve etc conflicts with the idea of reincarnation and humans involved in that reincarnation. Also, in some ancient belief systems it is thought that 'at the end' the animals (or certain animals) will go first i.e. go back home/to the creator/heaven etc to limit their suffering.