I don't think we can deny our physical reality...
It's much like the wave-particle duality in Quantum Mechanics. We can treat ourselves as physical beings and get results. But we can also treat us as spiritual beings. It's like 2 sides of a coin or Yin and Yang.
Do animals perceive themselves? If no...do they exist?
Self perception isn't a requirement for something to exist. Not all things we observe have a consciousness. I do have reasons to think that animals perceive themselves and think for themselves. They are simply not as developed as humans are.
Given that I am able to "touch" and feel myself which I believe would meet the definition of a physical structure providing some comfort in that...how does one "touch" themselves spiritually in order to "prove" that component?
Try proving that the mind doesn't exist without involving mind. This cannot be done and therefor mind exist. For other 5 senses mind acts like a primary sense. Think of all the peripherals of a computer getting connected to a processor. An even better example would be smart contract platforms. Ethereum runs on it's own and other blockchain projects run on top of it like the physical senses and the mind.
The process proves the existence of the processor.