Why do you pick the pets you pick?

[Comett]

*Loves these stories.* But anyhow.

When I was a little baby hunter, back in Vanilla, and fresh from Runescape, I was just about to go tame my very first "real" pet. Some hunter came along the path and said "make sure you tame a good cat over there" (I think he was meaning the dark striped level 8-9 tigers). However I'd just "abandoned" the white spotted black (which tbh looks like a gorgeous white spotted blue cat on my screen, and always has) cat from my hunter quests and I'd sworn to him I'd re-tame him because I get attached like that

So I ended up re-taming the same Nightsaber Stalker I'd picked up previously, and I named him Karma. I remember I was really unhappy with the name and was contemplating ditching him, but I didn't know that you couldn't rename them back then so I kept him thinking I'd just change his name later. And by the time I'd thought of a nice name for him, which I forget, he was already my "Karma" and I really couldn't see myself changing it. So it never bothered me since.

I don't know if they're still there, but back in the day I even left glowing reports over the Nightsaber Stalker pages on Thotbott and stuff with screenies of him as he levelled... so that was cool. I kept him through his life mainly because I think all we had were 3 stable slots, and I didn't really have the room/inclination for anything else, though I do remember being very taken by the Warp Stalkers (I've picked once up now we have the room) which I owned for quite some time... My second "perma" pet was Skoll, though, so that's how long Karma and I rode solo. It wasn't really until our stables were increased that I started "collecting" pets. I now have some that I really really love, such as my warpstalker Toothless and my orange Tol'vir tiger Flint, but at the end of the day it's always Karma I turn back to.

[Ascalaphus]

I generally go for a rare/hard to obtain pet even if I can get the same skin on a common spawn that is always up..

My reason for this is I feel that the pet means nothing to me if I didn't have to "work" to get it.

[Sochi]

Though I didn't always stick to it, and some of the pets had to be re-tamed or waited for, Shaon had a theme from nearly the start of her huntering path. Four little stone animals, found in my stocking last Christmas, gifts from my husband on our first Christmas as husband and wife.

They are a cat, carved of Fancy Jasper, a bear, carved from Rainbow Jasper, a Rhino, carved from Hematite, and a dragon, also carved from Rainbow Jasper.

We started out with a cat liberated from Tel Drassil at level 10, ghostwalking and then playing Avoid the Sentinels of Dolanaar. Black with snowflaked white spots, the cat became Ramas and he's still with Shaon to this day. The bear needed a few levels before I could go out and tame one. A ferocious bear from Silverpine was chosen. Though Subek the bear had to be re-tamed, he's permanent now. The rhino, Hematite, was tamed in Storm Peaks. Hemi surprised me, and I love the big lug.

Perhaps the pet the guild knows me by is represented by the dragon. We cannot tame dragons, but warpstalkers fit the bill nicely. My white warpie, Jasper, took his name from the stone. Ever the imp, I landed among a few of them and tamed the one that took a snap at me. Thanks to PetEmote, Jasper has taken on a personality of his own. Though "lost" in a Krush tame that went awry, I was immediately back to Outlands and Terrokar, to tame the same warpie in that same place. Jasper hasn't gone anywhere since, nor will he.

There are many more pets in my roster now, many with stories, all with personalities. But these four are the core of my hunter's team.

[Tsaikojen]

The same reason I race changed from Belf to Undead the moment it became an option, for the looks. Soo many great looking undead pets out there. For BM, it's rather limmited, but I like what I have. Damaged Silithid (Psychonix), Green Core Hound (Bilefume), Karoma (Sabras, though for some reason I'm drawn more to my old Gondria), Black Juramonger Worm and a purple Shale Spider just thrown in there for the mock Kings buff. For non-BM I'd go with Diseased Wolf (I have an oiled and knife-head ghost, but Diseased look much more fitting), Undead Eagle (Rend, not really a PvE pet but you can't deny the vanity), Hunched Tiger (will get panther when available, but "hunched" really do look like posessed statues), ghostly 2-head carrion (with mist effect) and a Black Beetle (Gravedigger).


If it ain't a zombie, ghost, plagued or eats dead things I don't want it!

[Rhyela]

Any interest in picking up a bone spider? Those are pretty wicked-looking. I'm personally fond of the brown one, but that light gray one really stands out and looks really nice (if you like spiders, that is, which I do!).

For the most part, the pets I pick are typically because they have green on them somewhere. Whether it's the eyes, the skin, what-have-you. That's what initially draws me to them, since green is my favorite color. I can't help it. Once I look at it, I see if there's a rare version and will go for that if I can. And finally, once I tame it, it must have a personality or..."feel"...almost immediately or I won't keep it.

There are exceptions, of course, like Zilean, my white fox (I picked him because he had the darkest eyes...the other foxes' eyes are too light and look weird IMO), or Skaza, my black wolf (coyote model), or Celeborn, my white wind serpent (Hayoc...always loved that wind serpent model). But yeah, for the most part, if you look in my stables, you'll see a lot of green.

Turns out my favorite pet of the bunch is my King Krush, Apollyon. He's big, he's about as green as green could be, and he's got a very cocky attitude that I love.

[Vegitø]

for me its all about the rares. i love when i can look at each pet and remember the story of how long it took to find and what i had to do to get it
where is the fun of catching a pet that is there 100% of the time?
for me there is no fun
i have 24 pets and most are rare spawns "last spot is for Karoma"
the few non rares i have i got when i was a lowbie and kept them till lvl 85
like my first real pet
Zarakh the spider "named him Kakarot a cookie if you get the name"
i got him as soon as i lvled to 19 for pvping and we owned some score boards on our way up together
and my Raptor a Deviate Stalker i love the look its not hard to get but the only ppl with it have to go out of the way to catch one seeing as its not everywhere you quest like some cats and bears
and a Murk Spitter for a snake but with the snake there is only 1 in the game with this color
so its rare in color and that makes me happy
those are the only 3 non rare pets i have that i will keep. any other non rares i have im going to dump for some new rares sooner or later

for me if my heart doesnt jump when i find the pet in the wild then i probably wont catch it
if you want to see my list click my profile i have my rares listed under the stable
if you want a story about a pet feel free to ask. it would take far to long to post them all