Exception-al pets!

[Lovelle]

Hi everyone!

It seems a lot of the hunters here have themes for each of their hunters - a practice I have recently adopted myself, however loosely.

Both my maxed level hunters have simple themes - Lovelle taming pets that compliment or match her fur color and Daxx taming only rare beasts (which may or may not share a common skin with non rares). My leveling hunter, Kyriena, has a slightly more complicated theme, taming only winter colored or otherwise Arctic related pets.

My question for you all today is: do you have any pets in your stables that are so exceptional to you, that they become an exception to your theme rules?

Examples:

I absolutely ADORE foxes... so Daxx has Shadow, a non rare black fox by her side. She also has Cilantro, the emerald scarab because it is just so beautiful and looks KILLER next to her.

Lovelle was BM spec at one point, so she has a few spirit beasts left in her stables, some that she just can't part with... I know it's a bit unfair to them, but when they do come out, the attachment to them is just too strong.

Kyriena was only going to tame snow colored beasts - then one day, while questing in Zangarmarsh, she stumbled across the magnificent Sporebat and Kyriena knew they belonged together... She named her Aurora, after the Norther Lights. Crab also clawed his way into Kyriena's heart after seeing Merridale's/Nubhorn's Snow. Because of this, Kyriena has altered her theme to include blue pets as well, which she argued can also relate to cold and arctic conditions.

[Lupis]

Ah, yes. I'm currently swapping around my stables to match my Transmog set, but even if I abandon every single other pet, Tinder the red lynx is staying. His bright red and yellow colors don't match my maroon/silver/dark green armor at all, but he's still Tinder.

[Araela]

The one pet that will NEVER leave my stables is Worf, my Old Cliff Jumper. When I was just dappling in leveling a hunter, I began to notice that some pets were actually "rare" and I stumbled upon Petopia. I loved wolves, and thus started browsing that section. As soon as I saw Old Cliff Jumper, I fell in love!

As for other pets, Skoll and Skarr will both remain in my stables. I love both of them. King Krush was one of my longest hunts, and I don't believe he'll end up going anywhere either!

My pet theme is specific to names only- at least, for my main. But I will tell you right now- all of my hunters, at some point, will have Old Cliff Jumper.

[Nubhorns]

Veeka only has a very vague theme - she likes bright colors and shiny things, but not really so much in her pets, as they're companions, not trophies. She tends to get black/brown/dark colored pets, although I don't actively try for them. Also every single one is turning out to be male. :l

Despite the color scheme, I'm beginning to feel that way about Hiras, my red lynx. He was tamed/named when the three of us(myself, the bf on his rogue and the actual Hiras, a mage) were goofing off in Silvermoon - Hiras couldn't get out, so we set up a distraction outside, got jumped and we laughed it off and ran around being silly. Really silly. I regret that I didn't take screenshots, but I think the nameless lynx swimming over the water really cemented his name.

I picked up Skarr a few days later thanks to Jess' notice and a very, very kind Paladin who only asked me to wait so she could call her GM, who was also hunting him, and while Vitriol is pretty he's no Hiras. Every other cat I've tried has been 'nice' or 'pretty' or 'shiny' and it makes me roll my eyes to see another red lynx but honestly, he's there to be weird when the actual Hiras isn't, and who am I to say he has to change his spots? He doesn't have the attitude I expected for the skin or for the character, but I think that's just part of his inherent strangeness. :P

[Sarantha]

Ned and Dean will likely never leave my stables. Ned is the Lone Hunter bugged with the sword permanently in his head. Dean is a ghost wolf. I guess you could say I have a thing for wolves. When I heard you could tame a ghost wolf and ANOTHER ghost wolf, but with a sword in the head, I just had to do it, and name them as such. If you get why I named them what I did, then you'll understand. Especially why Ned is a wolf and couldn't be any other animal (and the whole sword-in-the-head thing....)

[Miacoda]

Dragon puppy <3

Mia used to be a rare collector, but now I'm going with green colored pets for the most part (because a lot of my rares were just sitting in my stable all the time). Dragon puppy isn't green, but ong he's a dragon puppy!!

[GormanGhaste]

Most of my pets have an earthy coloration, but my seagull, Chalk, has won me over completely, and I don't foresee going back to a brown bird of prey.

[Vephriel]

I've never followed any sort of theme on Vephriel per se, mostly she just gets the pet models that I personally love and find appealing. Predominantly my pets follow darker schemes since they're my favourite colours...black/purple/blue are common, and I also like red and sometimes green.

Azzam, however, goes against all of my usual preferences.

Azzy is a Dreadsaber from Sholazar Basin, a complete whim tame that is still my most profound stable addition to date. I'd never had any overt bond with cat pets in game. Not sure why, I like cats, and many of their models are lovely, but Veph was just never a 'cat person'. Now, yellow/orange colours are also not my thing whatsoever. The cheetah pattern on both the regular models and the saber models was a skin that never even crossed my mind. I never liked it, never wanted it. It was a complete write-off.

Then, during a fateful camp while helping another Petopian look for Loque'nahak, I was laughably convinced to tame a certain Dreadsaber that happened to be clawing at my leg for a good portion of the night. It was a joke tame, I only felt bad for the kitty being just out of reach from me on a rock, so he was going to be a temporary camping companion.

Somehow, that Dreadsaber snuck into my heart and forged an incredibly strong bond. I didn't want him, I never planned to tame this model, but Azzy is now one of my most beloved pets. He tamed me, there's no question about that. He sticks out like a sore thumb among my other pets, but I just love him to pieces.



Here is the original thread on his taming story:
http://forums.wow-petopia.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4011

[Rhyela]

I still love that story...he was determined to win you over!!!

For Rhyela, just about all of her pets are predominantly green, or at least have green on them somewhere. Tetsusaiga (Echeyakee) doesn't count because I tamed him long, long before I ever had a "theme". But after I started trying to get green pets, I'd have to say that the one that probably breaks the mold is Vulkoor, my black Madexx.

I originally wanted green, but tamed a bronze first and then black (quite by accident, it's a long story...I really didn't mean to actually tame him!). I still looked for green for a while until one night, when some friends brought their Madexxes out for some pictures, I brought my black one with me. I hadn't used him at all or even kept him in my active stables up until that point. For some reason, this strong bond just formed all of a sudden. Now, even if I were to see a green Madexx on Rhyela, even though it would match her better, I don't think I'd tame it. My black Madexx Vulkoor is my buddy and always will be.

[Helsinki]

I don't really have a theme either. Most of my pets end up being unique rares, but that tends to be because I gravitate towards very brightly colored, shiny or glowy pets (with few exceptions). I also, of course, enjoy the thrill of the hunt haha.

I would have an awfully hard time letting Duckfart go. Duckfart is my strider clutchmother (so she hardly counts as rare), and I've had her (I think it's a her) for years. She is my oldest pet - I tamed her back when tallstriders were spectacularly useless (aside from having the highest base health of any pet family). Even though I almost never use her anymore I would feel terrible if I abandoned her. I'm trying to put her in the rotation more often.

As far as exceptions to my stable "rule" go, though... I would say my Lone Hunter (sword intact) stands out from the rest of my stables because he is a wolf. I have Skoll and Karoma, but I don't really consider them wolves. In general, I don't care for wolf models (unless they're blue, apparently), and aside from my spirit beasts, I tend to avoid ghostly pets because they just look sort of washed out and unappealing to me. But I like my Wesley (named after a friend who tends to make a lot of enemies hah) and I don't think I would get rid of him.

[Kalliope]

I don't really have color themes, only naming ones, so I'm fairly free to tame what I want. I do, however, have biases against certain models that I don't find attractive.

Like Sambas.

The little bugger decided he liked me and eventually, I caved, figuring he'd be a joke pet. The joke was on me; he appears to be staying, even though I still am not a fan of his appearance.

Lucky lion is lucky.

[Mozag]

Mozag seems to be the hunter that deviates most from her theme. She was supposed to get only red pets with violent names. So far though...she has the following:

Death - Curse my love for cats! This one is completely off (although the eyes are red), and was tamed on a whim. Only much later, when I took her out to abandon her did I realise that she and Mozag matched in colours and that the tiger was actually perfect for Moz's RP story. I wouldn't dream of ditching her now.

Destroyer - This was a tame for the Pet Challenge thread on the forums, and although I find this colour and skin so repugnant, I fell in love. I had never really clicked with her previous, orange ravager, and when I happened to find a green Madexx while flying in Uldum, I knew Destroyer was telling me something.

Torture - Which is why I kept this Madexx and even abandoned my favourite red in his favour. Torture was obviously meant to stay.

Hathor - This was my first hunter's best friend. When I race changed him into Mozag, I abandoned her as they did not go together well. I have retamed the condor on several other hunters, but it has never worked. So, I bowed to the inevitable and retamed the bird, but named it something gloomy. Again, I toyed with abandoning her (him then), until I realised that she could never be anything but Hathor, Ceredigion's loyal friend. I changed the name, and the bond is slowly growing, though Moz and Hathor still eye each other suspiciously.

Kalliope - While the colour is perfectly acceptable here, the name is obviously quite different to my usual names for Moz's pets. I probably need not elaborate on why this spider is called what she is.

Lazuli's theme is brightly coloured pets, or ones that seem to suit a Goblin otherwise (such as a monkey, or Ghostcrawler). She has two pets that don't fit in.

Loot - I console myself with the fact that she is at least a vaguely more garish colour than most spirit beasts. I think our bond was cemented during a VP run, though I couldn't say why.

Precious - He's such an odd, ugly boy, and I didn't even camp for him so no bond existed from the start. I tamed, stuck him in the stables after watching him run around Dalaran with that derpy body of his and forgot about him for a bit. Eventually I wanted to clear some space for Lazuli and abandoned him without so much as a backwards glance. Fast forward to a few months and I realise that I'm missing him. What? Why? We never did anything together! I bow to the inevitable and ask for him to be restored. I still don't use him much, but I accept that he has chosen Laz, and they will not be parting.

Alburga's theme is gothic Victorian inspired, but there are two that deviate from the plan:

Flaubert - Whereas most her pets are dark, Flaubert is a bright, screechy, insane package of a bird. I don't know what possessed me to tame him for her, but he is linked to very important RP events, albeit not directly, and those memories alone would be sufficient to keep him forever. I also love his dandyish personality when out of combat, I just want to stick a top hat on him!

Voltaire - I tamed him at level 10 after running on a PvP server to Durotar, and the journey alone makes him worthwhile. However, I did not have a proper theme at the time, and was toying with an idea of taming dull and sickly looking beasts for Alburga, and this brown scorpid was the one I had never looked twice at. Needless to say, I fell for him and his charming colour combination hard, and when I accidentally abandoned him during an intense hyena tame, I immediately asked for him to be restored, even though he is just a plain old scorpid model I could have retamed at any time. But it wouldn't have been Voltaire.

Though Dawnsong's stable is not quite complete yet, I'm including her anyway, as it's just a few pets short. Her theme is Taureny, spirity, earthy pets. No bright colours or animals that I don't think suit Tauren. Well...

Harvestmoon - It took me three pugs until I finally got one that let me tame her. I love dragonhawks, and had to get one for Dawnsong, no matter how silly they look together.

Raindrop - She started as a yellow hyena which was far more suitable, but I just couldn't stand him. Every time I took him out for a dungeon run or soloing (I TRY to give all my pets equal shares of attention), I just felt bleh. I bowed to my inevitable fate and tamed the lovely white hyena, which has always been one of my favourites.

Valiant - I have no excuse. I love the skin and needed a hunter to shove it on, and as nobody else was suitable, Dawn took him on. I adore him. The two look mis-matched but gorgeous anyway.

Wheatgift - Sort of the same situation as above. I wanted a spider for her, and I had nobody to give the green tarantula to, so she got it. It's just that slight hint too neon green to suit her, but I love him anyway.