Recent experiments suggest that cats are more socially intelligent and attuned to familiar humans than we realize. These studies even indicate that cats like us.
. . . there is no reason to suppose that humans deliberately domesticated cats . . . if anything, cats domesticated themselves.” – Danijela Popovic, PhD
Source: New Scientist, March 7, 2023. Link.
Also see: Why Do Cats Like to Knock Things Over? Daily Paws, March 25, 2021. Link. Haylee Bergeland, KPA-CTP, CPDT-KA, CBCC-KA, offers three reasons cats might deliberately push things off counters and shelves.