In issue #666 of Grant Morrison's Batman run future Damian had a tuxedo cat named Alfred (who seemed to be his only real confidant, which is both sad and adorable). Obviously it's not really 'canon,' but considering Morrison is planing to reference characters from that story in his 'Batman and Robin' run I'm kind of hoping it's some indication that Damian will warm up to Alfred eventually and stop being a little jerk to him. Decapitating criminals and almost killing Tim I can forgive, disrespecting Alfred...not so much.