It would be interesting to add other animals to the base, which automate basic tasks but have special needs(and cute expressions for meeting them).
Example: Mr. Fluffles is an orange cat who specializes in cooking! He'll periodically turn your food raw materials into processed stuff, in exchange for eating some of them and draining your oxygen. If you give him luxury goods like a happy ball of yarn, he'll work better.
Animals are "bought" from a crafting bench you make that allows you to hire(bribe) them with goods.