Ironically I was thinking about this when reading a book about the semi-domesticated hyenas of Harar, Ethiopia (Among The Bone Eaters by Baynes-Rock), where the authors makes the point that hyenas, like wolves, were also the other animal close to us, as in being socially complex predators. But unlike wolves, hyenas were feared and demonized. They were after all, scavengers in the night who lived in the same caves as us, ate from our graves and ate our children (this is in the archeological record by the way, there are many ancient humans with hyena bite marks). Hyenas are as big as wolves, with strange laughs and appearances. Wolves won our trust and became dogs, hyenas were displaced from Eurasia.
Yet as the hyenas of Harar demonstrate, they can have a role in human societies, and they could have even been domesticated. Our other favorite pet companion, after all, is another exclusive carnivore, nobody else than the domestic cat. Perhaps in the depth of history, there were human societies that formed kinship with hyenas, cheetahs, painted dogs, foxes, and other animals.