Metaphysics solved. Yes, they do, but what that means to them isn't relevant to what it means to us. Things aren't a priori and we don't know how the animal thought process differs from our own. Presumably it's identical to a point, but that isn't relevant in discussing what things are To Us, for our purposes.
The purpose comes first. You want to recognise things to avoid danger and approach pleasure, by whatever definitions. That means you need pattern recognition (which is also, roughly speaking, the definition of intelligence and our ability to sense and work with higher-order patterns is what separates us from the animals.)
The thing doesn't exist "for all intents and purposes" until it has a purpose. :)