Which of your pets is the most special to you?

[Mustafah]

None. I didn't find the right pet yet.

[ShootsAlot]

gotta say my most attached pet is skytalon found this guy in felwood you probably all know him as elm the wise but I've had this guy for a long time I'm pretty amazed hes getting a unique model he sorta deserved it lol...

[TheMidnightSpirit]

My most beloved pet is Ra.
He is just a common brown hawk, but he is everything to me.
I would rather abandon Sambas than him. He is my oldest and most loyal pet <3

[Acherontia]

I am attached to quite a few of my pets: Valak, my King Krush who raided with me throughout WotLK. Atropos/Snarler who I've retamed a couple times. Styx, my red hyena, who's had to be retamed as well (and who I sadly don't use much due to crap animations nowadays). Banshee, my beautiful Gezzarak. Khepri, my purple & blue scarab beetle... Derelict, my soft-spoken undead hawk who I never expected to love. Ochre, my Shango tiger who I always wanted, and Shiver, my lovely Karoma-ghost wolf. It goes on and on.

My oldest pet, and my most-used pet, however, is Talisman.

I really started levelling my hunter properly a bit before WotLK launch. I found out that Chimaeras were going to become tameable. And let me tell you, I thought of one RIGHT AWAY.

Back in Vanilla, just before TBC release (which is when I began playing), during the quest for the Scepter of the Shifting Sands to open the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj, part of the (IMMENSELY LONG) quest chain involved killing chimaeras on the Isle of Dread. I think that's the name, but anyway. The chimaeras were all powerful elites. The leader was a great (and by great I mean ENORMOUS) blue & white chimaera by the name of Lord Lakmaeran. He had Lightning Shield on him all the time, and surveyed the entire island and his various chimaera minions from atop a hill/plateau at one end. In order to kill him, you needed a very good small group, or a fairly organized raid.

Here's some random screenshot of a raid gloating proudly over their Lord Lakmaeran kill.

He wasn't something to screw around with! At level 70, a lot of people took pride in soloing him. It took 10-20 minutes in most cases, sometimes a half hour, and very good cooldown management. After WotLK release, it became far easier of course.

So anyway, when I found out we could tame chimaeras, my first thought was that I LOVED that gorgeous shade of blue on the old-world blue & white chimaeras. My second thought was awed remembrance at dying horribly to Lord Lakmaeran on my main. I gathered stamina stuff, haste gear, took the trek out there as soon as we could tame them, and promptly got my ass kicked. He hit like a TRUCK. He is one of those pets--along with Krush--that I respect the hell out of simply because they could whoop me in the wild! He's really one of those pets that tests you to see if you're worthy, I think

The second time, I was one hit away from dying when I pulled the tame off. I was proud of myself--and him. I named him Talisman for some reason--like a superstitious, powerful charm or amulet. I fell in love with him from the first moment I had him, and he's the ONLY pet I haven't abandoned & retamed at some point. He's been in my stables since the pre-WotLK patch, when I tamed him, so he's several years old!

During WotLK, he was mostly benched; I did my PvP on my mage, and my hunter was my PvE char, using mainly Devilsaur/Wolf for raiding. I never forgot he was there, though, and when I did have trouble in PvP, he was the fellow to call upon (well, him or Valak the devilsaur!).

Now, though, come Cataclysm, the Isle of Dread was hit by the great tsunamis, or something. It's still there--sunk beneath the waves. You get Fatigue if you try and explore too far. But it's there--the chimaeras, though, are long gone. I like to think that Lord Lakmaeran, king of the Isle of Dread chimaeras and bane of vanilla raid guilds, made good his escape by my side.

Now, he's my beloved right-hand man for battlegrounds and arenas. I love his blue AoE fire, although I don't use it for much--it's just gorgeous, my favorite color near the tip of the flames. His huge wingspan, constant slow (30 yard range 50% slow) and 100% uptime on Dive are great for PvP--as I often remind people, not even Crusader-aura Paladins can escape him unless they get a Resist in. I tried out a crocolisk in a battleground, and my guildmate / healer told me he missed Talisman, and could I use him instead?!

Anyway, here's another pic of my wonderful pet and his blue flame:

That, then, is probably my most-loved pet, and the one who will never be replaced!

[Boven]

No matter how many pets I have, my pink tallstrider, Peck, will always be my favorite.

Back when I was still level 10, I tamed my first pet, one of the wolves in Mulgore as well as one of the cats. I figured I was set for a while, but shortly after taming those two, I was running between Thunder Bluff and Bloodhoof Village when I saw Mazzranache crossing the road. I quickly logged off, logged onto my warrior main, sent my little hunter some money, then logged back over. Fortunately, the money arrived right away and I was able to buy that last stable slot.

I ran back and found Mazzranache again (thank goodness he patrols slowly) and tamed him. I named him Peck, since he'd nearly pecked me to death during the tame. (for a while after that, I'd name pets according to what they did: Pinchy the crab, Stingy the scorpid, etc).

Even though tallstriders weren't exactly the best hunter pets back in those days, Peck became my main pet. He was my first pet to reach level 60, then the first to level 70. He was the 2nd to reach 80. Sadly, with Cataclysm, I think he ended up being 5th or 6th. I had to get the raid utility pets maxed out first.

Back before we had so many slots, I only saw 2 other hunters at 60 with a flamingo, and only one of 'em that I know of still had the bird at 80.

He may not get out of the stables much, but he'll always be my 'signature' pet. Peck'll be with my hunter to the end.

[Kalhoun]

Oh gosh, this got me to dig through my old screenshots. Nostalgia!

Well, Kalhoun started his huntering career as a female orc, somewhere in the middle of the Burning Crusade. She leveled with a number of pets, since I liked to try out different types, keeping Petopia open in the background as I played. From about her late 30s to about 70, she kept a black armored boar from RFK named Gertie. That pig stayed in one of her three stable slots at all times... but this story isn't about Gertie.

It's about Blackjack the lion.



Every hunter I've had since I started playing in Vanilla, has always tamed Humar the Pridelord as a sort of "rite of passage" upon hitting lvl 23. I really don't know why, since not every one would keep him, but it just became this tradition.

Sometime after hitting level 70, I had joined a guild, and we began raiding. I had a good dps pet at the time (one of those purple cats from Winterspring I had managed to keep leveled with me). As with all of my hunters, my orc had tamed Humar at lvl 23, but had released him as she leveled and experimented with different pets. I started to want my Humar back, since he was my cat of choice.

But all of those levels! And leveling pets was so slow and painful back then! Well, I did it anyways, keeping Blackjack at my side as I killed caster mobs in Terrokar Forest for hours at a time. It took about a week of working on it for a few hours every night, but I eventually had my lvl 70 black lion.

Blackjack came with me everywhere, even when ravagers became THE dps pet. He was by my side as my guild progressed through tier 4 and then eventually tier 5 content, keeping me steadily as top damage on the charts. We would kite things to death even when all of the tanks were dead. I once arrived at a raid without a pet out, and a guildie actually became worried as to where Blackjack was. I couldn't ever imagine using a different pet, he just fit my orc so much.

I took a break throughout WoTLK from my hunter, after really bad guild drama and class changes made me feel pretty MEH about her. But after the Shattering, I started a human hunter just for the fun of it, and fell back in love with huntering. Ragabash the orc became Kalhoun the human, and Blackjack is still in my stable.

I really ought to lvl him up to 85. He deserves it.

Oh, and now that I am beetle obsessed, I named one Gertie, after my old armored boar. Gertie the beetle is my bud. But that's another story for another time.

[Sochi]

For my first hunter, for Sochi, it's Mercado. Mercado is a Springpaw Lynx. He was her tame, her first pet. He's been with her since level 10, he will be her first pet to 85. Sure, Sochi has had a lot of pets, some stayed, some didn't. Mercado will remain, no matter what. There are other pets in her stables that have great meaning to her as well, like Sevati (Shy Rotam) who was her first difficult tame, and Tempi the teal warpie, who is much loved. But it is Mercado that hold that special place in this hunter's heart.

Back when I was new to WoW, new to everything in this game, no one had told me that you could res a pet from anywhere and not have to be next to the fallen pet. I didn't know this. I was all of level 13 and Merc and I were questing in the Ghostlands against those spider people things. Well we ended up dead. Merc fought and died for me and I barely made it out intact. When I got back to my corpse and healed, all I could see was Merc's crumpled form in the middle of those mobs. So I started fighting my way over to him, determined to bring him back. I died a few times getting there, but I got to where he'd fallen and res'ed him. Once I had him fed and back to health, we got the heck out of there. It was only later that I learned that I could have res'ed him from where I had stood. That I had done something I hadn't needed to do. But looking back on it, I think I did. That action sealed a bond for me.

For Shaon, it was not her first pet that became her pet. Sure, I thought her first tame of a duskstalker from Teldrassil would bring her that "great" pet, and it did, Ramas is special and he always will be. But for Shaon, it's Jasper. Jasper is a white warpstalker. I have always loved this creature and warp stalkers-regardless of their lack of warp-have always been a fun pet to work with. So it was decided that Shaon needed one as they were fun and fit her theme. So I went out to Terrokar and found three warpies just hanging out. I landed my wyvern in their midst and waited. I was well above their level, but it was only a matter of time before one of them attacked me. And that was the one I tamed. He became Jasper and thanks to PetEmote, he was a total ham. Loves fish, loves to nip playfully, thinks his mistress needs feeding and brings her fish to eat.

But Shaon and Jasper's bond wasn't sealed until one tame that was not to be. Jasper was in my active slot when Krush showed up one evening in Sholazar. I watched and followed him for a bit and guildies began arriving. And I got it in my head to try and tame that king. It meant losing Jasper, but I could retame him when the stables were rebuilt and more space was added. Well, Jasper went in for me like a champ, taking Krush's damage like the tank he is. We were all waiting for fear and Krush did and I hit abandon and attempted the tame. Well, I failed the attempt, got feared and bitten. And then a gnome warlock interferred and killed Krush. It was a bust. I decided that I wasn't ready to tame the King. But I knew I had to have Jasper back. We had decided in a bit of RP that Krush's Fear had scared him so much, he'd warped back home to Terrokar. So that's where I went, right back to that rock, to that one warp stalker. And I waited again, until he attacked and I tamed him. Jasper was home again, all was forgiven. Now he has the prime spot in my roster, he's always there. He's the pet the guild knows Shaon for, her signature. He's the alpha warpie in my phase of warpies, as Shaon has four. And I think he teases Krush when I'm not looking.

[Falcon]

Mine's probably going to seem very odd to some since it's about a pet I've never once even had tamed but he turned out to mean far, far much more to me than all that I do have.

Even though I never got to tame him before he was removed from the game way back in the early days of BC, for me, it's Hawkbane. (Those of you who've seen all my other posts about him are probably thinking 'Oh no, there she goes again!' )

Sure he was just another white tiger, sure he was just an elite who looked like a carbon copy of King B, but that cat has come to mean so much to me over the past few years even though I never got to tame him nor even see him in the game before his untimely disappearance. The first time I ever laid eyes on this cat was in a screenshot which accompanied a blog from a dwarf huntress saying that she hated that cat. I couldn't help but wonder why she did, except that he must've been quite a challenging tame, and even though he looked like King B's twin, I really liked him despite that, and I absolutely adored his name. That was when I knew that I absolutely had to have that cat.

At that time, Toph was a draenei shaman and I was struggling to like the class, but I gave up, deleted her, and changed her into a blood elf huntress who's sole interest was cats, and her eventual goal and greatest challenge - Hawkbane. I leveled her as fast as I could, and I don't remember how far I'd gotten with her, but it wasn't very far since I still played other characters at the time as well, and I wasn't even remotely close to being able to set foot in Outland when I learned that Hawkbane had been removed from the game.

I was heartbroken.

Toph ended up shelved for a long time after that because my reason for playing her had been removed without any clear explanation, but part of me never gave up hope that perhaps, one day, he would make a return. Sure I still played her once and a while, but I knew that I'd lost my reason to do so until I remembered about Takk the Leaper, who became Toph's main pet alongside Dishu. Pets came and went as I tried to find her complete stable, and even Dishu ended up being released in order to find the right balance as Toph's interest in pets shifted from cats to reptiles in my futile attempt to get Hawkbane off my mind. It didn't feel right, though, nothing I tried did. Again, Toph was shelved in favor of other characters as I struggled to find someone to be my main, but my mind kept going back to her, and eventually, she was level seventy. I managed to quest in Skettis on another hunter of mine, Atreja, but I never really felt at ease there because I knew that someone was missing, but what could I do about it? Hawkbane was gone and probably doomed to stay that way.

Then Wrath was released, and I learned of King Krush, and given a reason to level Toph again, but things kept stopping me. At that time, another hunter of mine, Zerai, was my main, and I guess you could say that I wasn't motivated enough by Krush to level Toph because I was afraid of him up and disappearing like Hawkbane had. That never happeend, though, and eventually, I ended up playing Toph with my boyfriend and his brother, and we ended up getting to 76 before they both quit for some reason, and again, Toph was shelved in favor of Zerai. Then, I learned that Bestial Wrath would be getting nerfed and elites level 75 and higher would be getting a buff to their damage, so I knew I had to hurry and level now or I'd never get to tame him. I didn't want to lose my chance with him like I'd lost it with Hawkbane. Somehow I managed to get Toph to 80 in time, and after five stressful days of searching, help and moral support from my best friend, a pleasant surprise in Loque'nahak, and the help of a nice priest, Krush was finally mine and I was happy because Toph was now my main, and I was comfortable about it. Hawkbane had become nothing more than a faint, sad memory to me... or so I'd thought.

Then, I tried to go back to Outland and do Skyguard rep on Toph.

It was... uncomfortable... for me being in Skettis on her and her Skyguard rep still isn't finished even now.

I once ran into somebody who either had the real deal or just a white tiger named Hawkbane, but it... still hurt. A lot. I stopped in my tracks when I saw him, just stared at him, then I turned and ran away from him as fast as I could go because it hurt me that much. Somebody else... had my cat... and I could never have him myself, ever.

Fast forward to the revelation of Cataclysm and the revelation of 25 stable slots. I was happy along with everyone else since I could finally have so many pets I didn't have room for previously and shiny new pets recently made tamable after years of waiting, and I even finished most of the Skyguard quests in order to tame Gezzarak because I've always liked her. Then the actual expansion was released, and having learned about Jadefang, I leveled Toph as fast as I could in order to tame her, eventually overcoming my hatred of Deepholm and learning that I actually liked that zone. Jadefang came home on Christmas Eve, then right before New Year's Eve, Toph tripped over Sambas and tamed him as well. Her stables have shifted quite a bit, even with the addition of her final (for now) pet, the bronze-colored Madexx I ended up calling Fallout, and even though I loved all these additions, her stable wasn't and would never be truly complete.

Fast forward to present day and the revelation that a big chunk of previously MIA pets are coming back, and then it suddenly hit me and everything came flooding back.

Hawkbane.

Everyone was coming back but him, and I had to do something about that... or at least try to.

I swallowed all my fear and mustered every ounce of courage I had and made two threads, one here, and one on the official US hunter forums. The one here ended up with really good results, which practically floored me, while the other...yeah... let's not go into that. I even wrote something about him, not sure if it's a song or poem, but here's the link: http://forums.wow-petopia.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9271 (No need to say anything, I know it's bad. )

Yesterday, when I'd gone back to Skettis with my best friend to finally release my Gezzarak because despite how much I like her, we just weren't bonding, and I knew she would never be able to replace Hawkbane. I released her at the same skull pile I'd tamed her at the day the Shattering patch went live, then I did something I'd never been able to do before... I took my best friend to Blackwind Valley, to show her the cave where Hawkbane once lived.

I've never cried so hard over a pet in this game ever.

Even though I never got to meet him or even see him in the game before his removal, Hawkbane has been a constant presence within my mind all these years, and though I feel a bond between us, I'm just not really sure how to describe it except it's like waiting and hoping to finally meet a friend after so long. I feel, I know, that he's.... my cat... and if I didn't try to do anything about his disappearance, who would have? Gezzarak got her chance, the red warpstalkers got their chance, Death Ravager's getting his chance, so why can't Hawkbane get another chance, too? Gezzarak's old stable slot is still empty and it will stay like that because it's reserved for this special cat.

Toph's years-long bond with her Takk the Leaper, Jet, is also coming to an end, but I'm okay with that. He walked by her side all these years in Hawkbane's stead since he couldn't and we both know that because if and when Hawkbane ever makes his return, he'll finally be able to come home.

...Wow. I didn't mean for this to be so long and all over the place like it is, but this cat means more to me than I can ever hope to put down in text without it turning into a novel. And I swear, this will be the last time I'll ever talk about him... until the day Toph finally gets to tame him, that is.

[Tyrith]

Toph, I know how you feel, at least to an extent.

I was fortunate enough to receive a beta invite to Cataclysm and so the first 2 toons I copied over were my warrior and hunter. The very first thing I did was buy old world flight, and immediately I went about exploring the new post-Cataclysm Azeroth. I read about all the Barrens changes and thought "ooo I wonder where the Silithid Swarmers and Creepers will end up!" And so I did a flyby of the zone... the entire zone. No scorpids. At first I figured 'unfinished beta, they'll be back' but after an update that added most of the quests and a stunning amount of polish, I went back.

No scorpids.

I can't explain to you how... distressed it made me that the pet I loved and cherished was suddenly gone, without a trace. I was so bothered that I actually logged off of the client and went to the beta forums where I posted a huge topic - respectfully, mind you - that those 2 scorpids were the only blue/green ones in the game, and that their removal took away a choice from players who might feel inclined to tame scorpids. And that it was silly to remove them for the sake thereof, when the area they inhabited was more or less intact. I tried to keep my attachment to Pokee out of the post, but toward the end I flat out said that I had tamed one of those scorpids, many years ago, and that their removal from Barrens saddened me.

The next day, I went to friends in live who had hunters and encouraged them to tame one of the Barrens scorpids because they were apparently being removed. My own little virtual evacuation, you could say. I think 16 or 17 people tamed one.

About 2 weeks passed before we got a significant beta update - we had to reinstall the whole damn thing, joy - and while passing over Thousand Needles en route to Tanaris (to look for a rare Silithid) I landed. I thought it looked amazing, flooded with the shiny new water. As I sat there staring at the water, the most amazing thing happened.

A pokee wondered into view!

My first thought was... pets are visible when mounted again? Then I saw the red lifebar... and the name, Scorpid Cliffcrawler. And as dumb as it might be, I almost screamed out of joy when I finally realized what I was looking at - Blizz added an all new blue/green scorpid to the game. While yes, a part of me likes to believe my post on the beta forums made a difference, the likelihood is that Blizz probably had it planned all along. Probably. I flew along the perimeter and was stunned to see that there were very literally 50+ of them all wandering around. While I don't really roleplay, in my mind I kind of figured that the Barrens scorpids migrated south to 1KN. In any case I was positively elated.

[pengupuff]

I have three that are on equal standing with me.

The first is Dionysius. I searched for him for close to a year and had him killed out from under me five different times. Finally, on the night that I got Kingslayer, I checked the Basin and found him stomping around proudly. This was before the Shattering, so I called for a priest friend to come put up a fear ward. After a lot of anxiety and some colorful language, I finally landed a successful tame and Dio was mine. I was just ecstatic; he is my favorite pet model in-game and I would trade any piece of gear or mount or anything else just to keep him. ^_^


Next is Antiquus. I have had him the longest, and he feels like a gentle old soul that watches over me with his silent wisdom. I camped 10 straight hours for him, but it was well worth it. He was there when I started raiding, he was there when I killed the Lich King, and he remains a valuable asset in the Cataclysm. I know he is just a cluster of polygons, but I feel deeply attached to him nonetheless.


My biggest surprise by far is Vultros. I picked him up from Westfall a while back just because he was there and didn't really intend to keep him, but he really grew on me. I imagined him as a cunning predator that would ruin farmers' crops and terrorize local cattle. Despite his dull coloration, he gets many compliments from other players and can often be seen hovering at my side.

[Wassa]

Hahadori is my special pet. I first saw her on my first hunter, a night elf (I know I know, but my friends started as alliance and I was not going to be a dwarf) and I was wowed by her with her bright colors in the deary Darkshore fog. However, at that time she was untameable.

Later on I heard she was made tameable and I ran back to tame her. I loved her. She was such a unique pet back when everyone only had a cat. Although I did delete my night elf hunter, I started Wassa with the intention of at level 20 I would make the journey to Darkshore to tame her again.

Hahadori rarely leaves Wassa's side, and is probably more well known than I am. She tanked Hakkar at level 60 which at the time made her infamous on Kirin Tor, my old server. She has been the guild mascot in guilds I've been in. If I ever brought another pet for better dps/raid utility I would usually be asked where Hahadori was. It's a common joke in guild that Hahadori can tank anything, solos heroic raids, and bosses "face not Hahadori alone but the raid she commands." She even got married to our troll priest healer.

While now I might bring another pet into raids for missing buffs/debuffs, Hahadori is always in my first active pet slot. She will never be stabled again.

[Tyrith]

This is the result of a fun project I did today in Photoshop.




Uploaded with ImageShack.usI wanted to get all my scorpids into 1 image but obviously the game doesn't allow for that, so I got them out 1 at a time, placed them in different areas and took 5 screenshots without ever adjusting the camera angle/distance. Spent about 20 minutes editing all 5 together. The scorpids are:

Pokee (teal/green)
Brownie (Bronze Madexx)
Veggie (Green Madexx)
Gummi (Red Madexx)
Magmapokee (dark iron/metallic one) - thinking on a better name for this one, though.

I have a lot of other pets but my scorpids are my babies.

[Falcon]

Tyrith, your reply made me smile and even though I may never tame one for myself, I've always found the Barrens scorpids to be unique not only to their family, but to the entirety of the game, and whenever I'm down in Thousand Needles, I always have to stop and look at them for a bit. Your idea is a very sound one and i t makes a lot of sense, perhaps that is what they did. ^_^

This entire thread makes me smile, because it's so heartwarming to read about fellow hunters who have/had/will have that one pet who they feel truly defines them. The one pet that's their best friend. I'm a sap, I know. XD

[Orrik]

My absolute most favorite pets of all time is my brown northrend worg Riku. When Naxx was the main content, the guild I was in required me to have a wolf as a pet and I tamed one of the color changers in Icecrown. After a while of raiding and questing with the wolf, I began to really like the brown skin with the awesome dark orange eyes. So I abandoned that wolf and went to Howling Fjord to tame Bjomolf. At first I named him Crash, but after some of my guildies kept making fun of his name, I decided to name him after the Kingdom Hearts character Riku. Ever since then, Riku has been by my side for every raid and nearly every instance. Even if wolves become the most useless pet in the game, I will always keep my Riku with me.

I also love my beetle Jaime. I wanted a pet with the dmg reduction ability and I didn't want a turtle so I tamed a turquoise beetle. He's named after the super hero Jaime Reyes who is the Blue Beetle. He's saved my groups from wiping many times.

[Tahlian]

I think my signature says all that needs to be said about which pet is most special to me.

Way, way back in Vanilla, Tahlian was a night elf hunter. I got the crazy idea that I was going to do Wintersaber rep, because although I badly wanted an epic mount and swift riding training, I sure wasn't exalted with any other faction and I hated the armored epic night elf mounts. So there I was, killing animals in Winterspring for meat...when I get jumped by this cat. Now, I had tamed lots of pets on Tahlian, and quite a few cats while I was at it. But none of them really "clicked." I had finally abandoned the King B I had leveled to 60 with because I kept getting him confused with my guildmaster's cat...he used the same model, and I was taught the old-school way of things, always being aware of where your pet was and what it was doing. But I digress. I get jumped by this cat...and what a cat it was. I didn't know the first thing about addons at the time. All I knew was that unlike all the other frostsabers around the rock that were white and black, this cat was blue. Not wanting to get chewed into little bitty elfy pieces, I feigned death to get the cat off me...even then, I was averse to killing mobs without good reason. I got back up, and here she came again, back to try and chew on me. I ran around a bit, and she followed. Finally FD came off cooldown and I feigned again, and the blue cat ran off again. I stood up, and back she came. Finally, just to make her stop attacking me, I put down a trap and tamed her. As I ran around with my new pet by my side...I fell in love. Desperately, I searched for a name. I was a fan of Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" series back then, so I paged through a dictionary of words from the Old Tongue, looking for one that would be apropos for that beautiful cat - who I later found out was the rare spawn Rak'shiri. Turning over the pages, I found a word...Daishar. It meant "Glory." And that's exactly what she was...so I named her Daishar.

That cat went everywhere with me...MC, the raid I ran with's few bumbling attempts into BWL, the triumph of killing my first demon for Rhok'delar as a beast master, not Marks/Survival like you were "supposed" to be. She and I leveled to 70 when BC hit...and then things kind of went sour for me. My raid and guild Alliance-side started falling apart, and people I thought were good friends turned out to be less so. Faction transfers didn't exist back then, so regretfully, I rolled a blood elf priest and began playing Horde. I never forgot about Tahlian and Daishar, though. I hated having max-level characters in really good gear that I didn't want to play because of which side they were on, but there wasn't anything I could really do. I rolled another hunter, this time a female Tauren. Oakleigh was fun, but even her pink flamingo Agador couldn't replace my Daishar, my Glory.

Fast-forward to Wrath of the Lich King. One day, faction transfers, the thing they said would never happen, became available. I knew what I wanted to do. Tahlian the night elf became Tahlian the blood elf, a somewhat introverted young Farstrider who was better with animals than with people. And right by his side was his faithful blue cat, Daishar, who was still capable of making me catch my breath at how beautiful she was when she ran beside me.

Then, the Cataclysm beta happened, and tragedy struck. The Shattering patch came, and my beautiful blue girl was forcibly replaced in my stable by a black-and-white stranger that looked just like every other night elf starter pet. This was not the pet I wanted. This was not the girl I'd tamed who'd been through everything with me. This wasn't Daishar. The bond we'd shared had been irrevocably shattered. When I voiced complaints about the change, I was told to suck it up and tame Shy-Rotam, which I eventually did. Now I had my girl back, blue as she was supposed to be...but a little part of me still feels like I cheated, or like Daishar was cheated, one. I'm not sure which. I've adjusted, but I still do and always will disagree with that skin swap decision.

Daishar has gained some pridemates now - rather a lot of them, in point of fact. But she's still Tahl's Glory, his best girl. I got rid of the white-striped interloper the other day...that wasn't my girl. That wasn't my pet. When they shut down Feathermoon for the final time, or when I finally decide to no longer play, when I hit the Log Out button for that last time, Tahlian and Daishar will fade into the darkness - together, forever, just as they always have been.

[WildcatTM]

Mist Howler. Now a long story, though.

Back on my first hunter, a Night Elf named Meier on Feathermoon, and consequentially my first character on World of WarCraft. I had just found out about these "rare mobs" and decided to go hunting for Mist Howler. It was instant love. After awhile, however, I was getting really, really annoyed with the Alliance on my server. So I bid farewell to my hunter and moved onto the horde as a Forsaken warlock. After awhile I began to miss Mist Howler, so, I decided to roll an Orc hunter, found Mist Howler, and kept him with me for quite some time.

Unfortunately, it did not last. Eventually I forced myself to replace the gray wolf with some other pet. Shortly I made a Blood Elf hunter and went off to tame him for a 3rd time. He's been with my Blood Elf hunter for almost 3 years now. And, consequentially, that hunter's name is Meyer.

Full circle, baby.

[Kikanu]

Garnet, my Springpaw Lynx from the Blood Elf starting zone. I'm a draenei hunter, and I began playing in early BC. You know, when everything wasn't handed to us on golden platters. I ran from the draenei starting zone at level 15 through the boat to Auberdine, went to Menethil harbor, and corpse ran from there all the way up to Eversong Woods. A day's work just to get there, learning of where stuff is for later awesome adventures. I didn't go all the way to the starting zone, but I was in the low level area taming a cat that was level 7.

Had him ever since. Friends call me crazy for wanting it that badly. I told em "Yeah, and I worked for something I wanted. Gladiator Gear; 8000+ arena points. Heroic gear: Days of Farming. Getting a cool looking pet that's sticking with me for a long time: Priceless...and about 2g in repairs."

[Nubhorns]

I'd have to say Torque, who was previously Snorts from the Storm Peaks. :P

I don't think it's a secret that I love boars. I love the buttwiggle, I love the squeal they do when they charge in, I love that they eat anything and everything like a big, tusked dog begging for scraps. I had a normal brown boar(I think it was Bellygrub, actually) back when Veeka was Veera, a Draenei Hunter who had turned to piracy(ugh) in what I thought was a good roleplay idea on a non-roleplay server, no less. I stopped playing Veera entirely for my raiding DK, but when the guild fell apart and no one wanted to do old school raids anymore, I turned back to my spacegoat and her piggy. I regret to admit that I think his name was Bacon, or some sort of food joke - but he stayed with me all throughout Outland and into the beginning of Northrend. He was there for the Battle of Undercity, squealing and buttwiggling as well as he could, and he helped me defend Valgarde Keep from the Nerubians as if he was getting paid for it with delicious food.

I edged farther into Dragonblight and then I saw the Jormungars. I dropped Bacon-or-whoever like a hot potato and snagged one of the prettiest pets I had ever seen. I named him Odie, and we were inseparable. I didn't really think about the consequences of dumping a Redridge-born critter in Dragonblight. I didn't really care. I had a worm! And I had new guildies who loved my worm! Time passed, and I was picking things back up with my old friend. Turns out she played WoW, on some fancy-pants roleplay server called Moon Guard. She wanted me to join her, even though I had next-to-no roleplay experience and I was, at the time, Alliance. I said sure, whatever, and arrangements were made to faction transfer a few days before Christmas and realm transfer shortly after that. Odie had long since left my stables, replaced by a Vargul Blighthound named Vince and the Stormwind Sewer Beast, who I named Scuppers. I knew no one could tell the difference when it came to her skin, but I thought of how awesome it would be to have an Alliance pet on a Horde character.

But this story isn't about Odie or Vince or Scuppers, it's about Bacon.

Veera became Veeka, lost her hooves and her horns(most of 'em anyways), kept her white eyes and bizarre almost-accent, and picked up the Horde flag. She, with the help of a surprisingly friendly Orc General(who was my friend!), moved her way up in the Horde until she was almost accepted. People still frowned and shot her funny looks, but at least she could walk through the city unharmed. She picked up engineering and eventually goaded her now ex-General mate into taking it up as well. She wasn't very good, but he was considerate enough to fix things behind her back and go "Look, Veeka! All you had to do was shake it a bit.".

Late one afternoon, Veeka was prowling the Storm Peaks on a slow-as-molasses flying machine with an empty stable slot. I had been snooping around Petopia, too, and decided I may as well get a boar. I didn't know what kind - I was too lazy to go all the way back to Razorfen Kraul for a pig. I was flying over an Alliance base and saw a red dot pop up - something named 'Snorts'. It was a boar! Funnily enough, the exact boar I wanted.

I screwed up the tame time and time again, dying to guards that flagged me and in turn, passing Alliance, the boar itself - I was 80, and this was particularly embarrassing. I reread the directions on the tame and stuck myself in the right spot. Popped deterrence for all it was worth, and hit tame. Wait for it...wait for it...he's mine! Quick, run for your life!

...except I couldn't, because my new friend was defending me from at least five guards. Instead of dismissing him, feigning and running, I decided I liked his style and helped him fight back, thereby alerting every Alliance on the continent that I was in their base, killin' their doods. Ten minutes of the most awkward fighting ever and I flew away with a boar piled in my lap, trying to chew on the flying machine controls.

On an engineering kick, I decided to name him Torque, which was a suitably better name than Bacon. I spent a good few minutes looking up as many engineering terms as I could, but that one seemed to click. I didn't realize until later that this was my Bacon. Some good-for-nothing dwarf had snatched him up while passing by, stuck some armor on him and given him a stupid name, and it was only by sheer luck that I ran across him again and after much coaxing, he decided to come along again.

Torque now lives the 'good' - or mostly exciting - life with his master, trained to sniff out bombs like a police dog, wearing his armor and his 'Boar at work - do not disturb!' tag like a pro. He's built to take hits and he does - but singed hair grows back much faster than, say, Veeka's leg or arm would. I have other boars, and other pets who Veeka personally trained to do similar things - but at the end of the day, if I need a tank or if I just need a pet to solo with, Torque is who I turn to. If WoW is ever shut down and I'm forced to quit the game forever, he'll be at the logout screen, just like everyone else's pets - but he'll live on. Even if I have to turn Veeka into a human and Torque into a dog, they'll continue being just as awesome. And just as buttwiggly.

I won't talk about the cool kids with their flaming boars. Torque knows how I feel about them. Buncha posers. ;P *kidding*

[Felidire]

Mah Loque' <3

Well I loved the ZD Har'Koa quest chain, and ideally I would've loved for her to come with me afterward that chain was completed, but of course that's not possible.... Soooo next best thing.... I scooped up her terrible excuse for a boyfriend and then ran away with him. Asides from the occasional Jadefang popping its head out to tank - which is quite rare - Loque has been with me for years and 99.9% of the time he's the one you'll see standing next to me.

I've just never been able to have that "connection" with more than one pet at any time, my stables are practically empty as well because there's no other pets i'd rather use and I don't see any need to "collect" them like toys. XD

Loque ftw! ^3^

[Kalliope]

I have many pets who are special to me in different ways, but there is only one pet who will always be with Kalliope, the one who's been there since before she was born: Ursa.

I had resisted the pull of WoW back in vanilla. My bf at the time had a hunter and I was interested enough in his pets, but I was keeping my distance from the whole MMO thing. Time passed and BC came out. I got a better internet connection. I decided that it was time to give WoW a shot. He sent me to Petopia and it was there that I first saw him. Out of all the pets pictured, there was only one that I had any interest in: a black bear. I decided to name him Ursa, after a friend of mine from another game.

Since my options for a hunter were either a night elf or a dwarf (I didn't have BC yet), I opted for a night elf. For some reason, I'm just not into playing a dwarf hunter myself, though I love my dwarf characters of other classes now. My first name of choice (Atalanta) was taken, so I ended up with Kalliope after some trial and error. I learned the basics of WoW and that I would have to reach level 10 before I could tame my bear. I loved the taming quests and was a bit disappointed that we didn't get to keep those three pets. But it was time! I could go get my bear. Sadly, I had no clue where Dun Morogh was and my then-bf was less than inclined to take me there at level 10 so Ursa could be my first pet. Feeling naked without a pet, I tamed a gray owl, the closest I could get to white, and named her Hedwig. She was definitely a temporary tame, hence the easy Harry Potter reference. We quested down to Darkshore, where I happily released Hedwig for one of the brown thistle bears, who became a temporary Ursa. But it wasn't the real Ursa. Eventually, finally, somewhere between levels 13 and 16, we took the long trek across the Wetlands, which was very dangerous as a lowbie with no mount and on a PvP server. But then we got to Loch Modan....and there they were: black bears. I wish I knew which specific one I tamed; I was just so happy at the time to finally get the real Ursa.

Time went by, and both Ursa and I reached level 70. Life with him was good. However, my bf and I had grown apart and things ended. This was a sad thing, of course, but what made it worse was that he'd originally set up my account...and it was in his name. I contacted Blizzard to see if it could be changed, but it couldn't. So I was faced with a terrible choice: go on with his name and the past forever haunting me or start over from scratch. I chose the latter, but it was not easy.

I cried buckets at having to give up my pets, especially Ursa. I created a new account, this one completely mine, and went through all my characters one at a time, meticulously recreating them exactly as I had before, and in the same order, deleting each as I went to ensure that I would get to keep all my characters' names. I dove in quickly, leveling the new Kalliope with fervent passion so that I would be reunited with Ursa and Atalanta, my ghost saber. I planned ahead; I knew which of the black bears I would tame this time around. One of the most traumatic experiences for me on the original Kalli was doing the quest in the Wetlands that turns you and your pet into ghosts...and Ursa was turned into a female ghost. That was why I specifically chose a Grizzled Black Bear from eastern Loch Modan - I wanted to know my Ursa was male. (As it turned out, I have avoided that cursed ship ever since anyway, but it still influenced me at the time.) Surely I brought a temporary pet with me, but I cannot remember if it was Hedwig again or if it was temporary Ursa. He was the first one I saw as I headed south along the east side of the Loch. The joy at being reunited with Ursa was indescribable and the great pains I had taken in finding him forever changed how I viewed pet taming.

Ursa hasn't left my side since then. He may not always be my most active pet, but he's always there waiting for me. When it comes time to level to the next cap, he's the first pet to reach it with me. When I releveled to 70 the first time, it was a level 69 Ursa who came raiding with me. I named my Amani War Bear Ursa Major and my Dun Morogh Cub Ursa Minor after him. When going back into Karazhan in late BC, it was Ursa who off-tanked Moroes. Cataclysm has been good to Ursa; I actually bring him with me for Tol Barad dailies more regularly than I ever did in Northrend or on the isle, despite having tanking pets who are more practical for PvP. He's taken Kalliope's transformation into a human in stride. He knows it's me. After all, we've been apart before and he knows how to find me.

Ursa is my one pet, regardless of how much any of the others defines me. We share a different bond, a deeper one, one that others may not see or understand. But that's okay. We know it's there.