There's the 1950's(?) James H. Schmitz story in which teenage Telzey Amberdon becomes the first human to discover via telepathic communication that the pantherlike felines native to an allegedly uninhabited planet are actually sentient and haven't bothered to inform the humans hunting them of this because they were having a good time hunting the humans back until the hunts got too high-tech. But that's more "empowerment via becoming accidental ambassador to an animal-like alien species" than bonding with a companion animal*, since Telzey goes on to have a bunch of other adventures elsewhere in other stories and I don't think the cat in question shows up in any of them.

*Something similar happens in a somewhat more Disneyish way in Carrie Vaughn's recent novel about a girl who makes friends with a dragon on an alternate Earth where dragons have their own separate territories and are regarded by most humans as some sort of horrific bloodthirsty menace.