Having trouble "bonding" with any pet...

[Kalliope]

I've written about various pets of mine before, but no one stands out as much as Orpheus, my Chatter. http://kallipets.blogspot.com/2011/02/t ... tulas.html

[Airwyn]

I've been having trouble feeling anything from my pets as well. So I dedicated my last few days to playing with my "common" pets. My must have pet when I was around level 59-60 was the white lion Sian Rotam. With the help of a friend I was able to tame him and an instant bond was formed. More recently after I got Sambas, my white lion, Shinigami, took the backseat. Sambas became my dungeon pet when I needed a cat. It was when I started filling my stables with rares did I start losing my bonds. Shinigami came out of the stables during the "common days" and nothing can describe how amazing it felt to see his familiar white form standing at Airwyn's side again! It was like a missing piece fell into place (yum, corny). I am solidifying him a spot in my active 5, time for a rare to take the backseat for once

Another special pet Airwyn has is her diseased brown bear from Felwood. I got a friend to run from Darnassus to Felwood with me as a bodyguard should I have needed one I tamed Pustulio at level 47 and he still stays with me as my favorite tanker at level 85. Something about him I just love!

Envy my Loque is a favorite as well. He began my love fir rare hunting. There I was at level 76 running on my talbuk through all his spawn points; I would check the points and then go back and quest. No npcscan, no flying, just a /target macro and a white war talbuk. When I finally did find him I about had a heart attack! Mostly because there was a paladin standing next to him! I talked to the paladin who kindly let me tame Loque. I didn't have the faintest idea what to name him! One thing that became pretty routine was running loops around Dalaran with him out because I knew people would always ask me about him! After that his name became Envy because so many people wanted him

And lastly, a pet that I never thought that I wanted or would ever get, Ankha! I had just taken some screenies with a freshly tamed Banny when Npcscan blared at me, picking up Ankha! I searched around for someone to tame her before I caved and tamed her myself. My Gondria is named Hikari, a word meaning Light in Japanese, so it seemed fitting to name my new girl Tsuki to accompany her. I adore her model and skin so I loved her looks but she didn't gain her personality until sometime later. To me, she is playful and protective and just a big love bug

I find that if I had an impulse to tame a pet there was usually some kind of feeling there! So maybe if you feel like taming a random pet, give them a shot

[Aeladrine]

Sometime a good curse word is the only thing that works. Here there be dragons.

You want to know a brilliant way to bond with a pet? Don't. Find one that just sneaks into your stables somehow. You won't understand it, you won't want it, but quickly you'll find you won't be able to let them go. Take, for example, my blog post from earlier:

Oh, lordy. I had my first impulse tame today. As in first ever. I don't impulse tame, I just don't. So, it was a huge surprise to me that, when I was questing in Sholazar (I want to gain rep with the Oracles. I wanna try for a Green Proto from the eggs), I was suddenly dismissing Gwyn and all the sudden Pitch wasn't where he should be for me to kill him. Instead, I have beside me a skin I've always hated with that green name of "Cat <Donachan's Pet>". Well then. You can ask anyone who was in the camping chat at the time, I was confused as hell. I don't know how it happened. I don't remember consciously doing any of that or, heck, even deciding to! All I knew was that all of the sudden I had this black maned cat by my side and, gosh darnit, it wasn't going to leave, was it?

So, I had to figure out what to name him. And yes, it was a him just like every single one of my cats. >:1

And so someone suggests things to do with booze. And Dona has had a welsh naming theme for a while now (she does have pets from before that theme and ones who just named themselves and ignored the theme, however). So, to google translate!

And guess what the welsh word for booze is. Cwrw. I said that hell no I was not naming any pet of mine that but, even as I said that, I knew it wasn't true. Well, shit.

Cwrw. I have a cat with a skin I've always hated named booze. In welsh.

"It's drunken catspeak!"

....That cat is crazy.

He's momentarily in the stables because I needed to reassure Gwyn that his spot was not being taken. He's fine with this. He likes this. He likes Cwrw. And I am now, after five years, finally getting around to wondering what exactly my cat's sexuality is. I always thought he was just a stoic, asexual slice of awesome. He's not.

Well, shit.

As soon as I feel up to it (because, honestly, right now I'm too scared to), Cwrw will become a permanent member of the team. And the team will consist of two cats and a fox at all time. Except for dungeons and raids, I guess. One of them is just going to have to sit out sometimes.

Edit: tried to end a font size change with italics. What.
Edit Two: Left of an italics end. UGH.
Edit Three: Words were... wrong.
Edit Four: Same as above. There is something wrong with me today. :1
Edit Five: LOL FORGOT THE INTRO TO MAKE THIS RELEVANT

[Litlemouse]

I find that also the longer you have a pet and the more you use them, the more they seem "special", hopefully even getting into your heart. For example, Moony (the gray with white spotts cat that can be seen in my siggy) was my very first pet since level 10, Vanilla WoW, when I was just a little hunter newb. He is and always will remain my favorite pet. All my other pets just feel like they're there- they're cool and all, but they aren't Moony. I might suggest picking a common (or even rare) mob and seeing if you can stick with em for a while.

[Kalliope]

<3 this story so much.

[Kamarae]

I bonded quite well with my spirit wolf Tempest. Spent 3 days camping only to have it killed. Logged in next day and there he was. Came up with his name after the first day of sitting for him. At first i really didnt want him anymore after all the effort (and watching him get killed once), and he spent a couple days in the stable. Then i felt bad and warmed up to him. Now hes in every first-time downing of any raid boss (in the screenshots). Hes my little raid buddy and I feel terrible any time I down something new without him ;\ sad part was, camping him was an impulse. Middle of TB and out of the blue i was like "hey i think ill go camp karoma".

I recently bonded quite well to my firefly (ok wasp) GlowLight after got him as a try-out pet for arenas. My shale spider Jadefang just wasn't dealing as well with the healers we were rolling in arenas and I felt like a pet style change was in order. Mostly needed more damage with the same amount of interrupts as my shale spider. Wasp was the closest I could decide on and I just happened to be in Outlands, so i tamed a green firefly thing.

id say if you want to bond to your pet, go for a pet you want on impulse, or one that just happens to be tamable in the area.

[Katlyne]

I know with all the rares i have the only pet that is "The Pet" for Katelyne my hunter is Popsicle (cursed offspring of harkoa)

[Foru21dr]

I have only one Hunter where the bond with a pet is complete. It was not an instant bond.. but more of an event that sealed their fate together.

This pet is Uhk'loc.. the white gorilla. I originally picked him up as a joke from when a guildie was using trash gorillas to try and tame King Mosh which is another story all together.

I no longer remember which camp I was in when I was doing some quests, but the village was full of Vrykul. Since Uhkloc was a tank pet, I was sending him in to gather up 3 at a time and then killing them off... So easy I thought. What I didn't do was pay attention to my surroundings. I had just gathered the next set of Vrykul when I found myself being attacked by 3 others. I had been standing in their path, and they walked right up to me. Then comes the mistakes. Feign death got them off, but an accidental move on my part and they were on me again. Uhkloc comes charging in and I was supprised to see that his growl and thunderstomp dropped the aggro from me and on to him pretty quickly. So now he has 6 on him. I kite away and start to shoot, when I kite right into another vrykul. They were spawning again all around. So error after error, I'm kiting into the others. I see bodies going down as I kite and he charges trying to pull them off me, but eventually my health gives out and I die. When I finally get back and rez in a safe place, I count the bodies around me. There were 7. We killed 7 before I died. When I called Uhkloc back and started again on the quest. He showed me that he was pissed at what happened and did a leap at the next Mob he attacked. That sealed my bond with him. He will always be with me.

As a side note though, I also liked the fact that when I first had pet emote. there were some saying for the gorillas when in combat mode. So on a dungeon run one time he told our whole group that we were doomed.. It was hilarious.

[GormanGhaste]

My current favorite is ShaleDun, my brown silithid beetle, who was just supposed to be a temp pet until I was high enough level to tame one of the pretty scarab beetles.

One idea for trying new pets is the Random Pet Challenge thread.

And maybe you're looking at it wrong. It's ok for your tastes to naturally change over time, and it's ok to prefer using an assortment of pets. There doesn't have to be one special 'THE pet'.

[Lisaara]

Maybe try looking at other hunters pets and see what stands out to you. I've done that.

Also since I roleplay, I have different themes for my hunters.

Taluwen - Troll Themed mainly but has one or two Blood Elven pets(dragonhawk and linx)
Jessibelle - I tend to stick mostly to a bronze theme but I have a few exceptions. She's also just my test hunter I raid with but her best buddy is a fox.
Lisaara - Hers is more draenic and spiritual.
Titala - Orcish and spiritual/elemental
Umbriah - I got a Kaiju theme going on. XD Yes that means King Krush will totally be Godzilla.

[Azunara]

Yeah, definitely suggest trying new things. And don't ever, ever, ever be afraid to drop pets because you don't like them, rare or not. It is easy to get back a pet, it just takes time.

Firewing had used Moonlight for the longest time, but the old cat is retired now and Aralos, my Gondria, takes his place. Beyond those two, I have three other pets: Iorek the armored wolf, my survival pet, Bayne, my Krush, because he took a lot of effort and I won't ever drop him, and Shadow the oily wolf, because he looks nifty.

[Sakiki]

my number one bonded pet with myself was Skoll I tamed him over a year ago and still he has never seen the pet stables. But recently I tamed Skarr I have Never been a cat fan EVER ((I have a Loque though I love the skin I never use)). I figured I would get Skarr to put in my collection to collect dust like the rest of my rare tames. something about this kitty just clicked with me. and now my Skarr and Skoll are fighting over who gets to stay out more. granted most times I need a wolf so my Glitched wolf with a sword in his head typically wins. the more pets you try out the better you will get to know your likes and dislikes.