Pets you never dreamed you'd bond with

[Lisaara]

Have you ever tamed a pet just for the sake it looked okay with your toon but never cared for it when you saw it at first? Before you knew it, you fell in love with the pet and take it with you where ever you go?

Thats how I feel with Liam, my brown fox I got in Redridge. I originally had gone out there to get the black one.....but the black fox, beautiful as it was, just didnt feel right. I saw the brown one and he looked perfect next to my tawny worgen. It was funny cause I never cared for that look before. So I abandoned my black one, and tamed the brown instead. I named him after Prince Liam Greymane, since Jessibelle was heartbroken she witnessed the prince's death. It was a tribute to him. It fit like a glove, I think.

We've been inseparable since. I've never put him in the stable unless it was to tame something else. But I brought him back immediately.

He's also the best tanking pet I've ever had, picking up slack where lowbie tanks fail or die.

He tanked all of Scarlet Monastary Graveyard when there was a faildruid not tanking properly.

He's picked up the tanking job when tanks die due to them being too cocky and pulling too much. He protects the healers. Recently, we were in Blood Furnace. DK Tank was good but too cocky and pulled too many mobs. Liam tanked and saved the group from an utter wipe in both orc-filled rooms and the room with all the Fel Guards just before the boss. He's a champion.

[Lisaara]

And before anyone says somethin, this isnt a remake of Slickrock's topic. I didn't even see his. This is about ALL pets, not just patch 4.0.1+. Just making sure to put that disclaimer out.

[BaldingBarry]

The Pet I didn't think I'd bond with but did is my Beetle (named Ringo for obvious reasons).

Beetles r 4 tank and haz many armors!

He's one of the lowest level available beetles (the ones spawned by the crypt stalkers in that tunnel in EPL) and he has become my 'go to' guy for anything tanky.

Seriously the little guy is just a rock. Cower and Harden (used seperately or at the same time for those 'oh carp!' moments) make him pretty damn indestructible.

Mind you I have him built purely with survival in mind (The health buff talent, both of the armor buff talents, increased resistances, Blood of the Rhino, Silverback and Growl is more effective talent) but the little dude can tank stuff meant for a 4 man group with ease and only really suffers when fighting stuff the equivilent of 5 man dungeon bosses. With the Glyph of Mending (heals 40% total health) means he heals (this is at level 75) for around 1600 health every 2 seconds.

Just...wow..the little guy rawks.

[Lisaara]

Aw. Hehe. I've been tempted to get a beetle of my own.

[Kurasu]

For me, it was Panzer, my turtle. I don't even remember why I originally got him. I needed a tank, I guess, and that was his job. And how he became a part of my life! His pink and grey skin has changed to fiery, but to be quite honest, I wouldn't care if I'd never gotten the Terrorpene skin. Panzer is my beloved turtle.

[Lisaara]

i've always had a fascination with the pinky turtles. Never had one myself though. x3

[Rhyela]

.....(used seperately or at the same time for those 'oh carp!' moments).....

Yeah, gotta watch those carp. Sly devils.

I actually have a few I didn't expect to love as much as I do:


Sheldon has gone through a couple color changes (first the red turtle, then gray, then green, then gray again), but he has always been my main dude for tanking. He's awesome, and he's so adorable. My guild knows him and asks how he's doing. Whenever I know I need a reliable tank for something, I call Sheldon to my side. He's one of the main reasons I probably won't get Terrorpene. Sheldon just wouldn't be Sheldon unless he was this one.


Napthali is just an altogether special pet. I saw the skin as a critter in ICC and thought it was pretty, and looked for a tamable version (always liked spiders, but had only ever tried tarantulas and couldn't get into them). I saw a few, one of them being Naraxis, a rare in Duskwood. I love rare pets, so that's the one I went after. However, it wasn't there when I arrived. So, I went to the next closest place which was in Zul'Gurub. There were mobs there called Razzashi Broodwidows. After some embarrassingly failtastic pulls that almost led to my untimely demise, I finally managed to tame one of these beauties. Named her Naphthali which is Hebrew for "struggling" (a perfect fit considering the circumstances). I thought I'd replace her with Naraxis if I ever found it. I looked one evening and there sat Naraxis. I placed Naphthali on "Stay" at the entrance to the cave so I could look at Naraxis. But when I turned my camera back to Naphthali, I just couldn't swap her out. She was special to me, even though she wasn't rare. Now, go figure, the Razzashi Broodwidows are gone while Naraxis remains. My girl is now more rare than a rare.


Mortimer was an impulse tame. I don't even like ghostly pets for the most part, but I was bored one day and figured I'd give him a shot. I ended up falling in love with his derpy personality. However, when 4.0 launched and I saw the green jormungar, I decided to change him. Ghostly Mortimer was hard to see (I don't play with nameplates on), and green is my favorite color, so it seemed an obviously good move. However.....I haven't used the new Mortimer. I dearly miss my old derpy friend. I intend to get him back soon. Maybe I should just do that now.....


While I knew I would love this model of scorpid when I got it, I wanted my future Vulkoor to be green. As stated somewhere above, green is my favorite color and with the T11 gear and such, he would match me and my crazy green hair perfectly. It was a match made in heaven! However, during what I was expecting to be a day-long camp, a black Madexx spawned behind me (my first Madexx, a bronze, spawned in front of me. A subsequent bronze Madexx tamed by someone else also spawned in front of me...but black spawned behind). My plan was to give him to a friend who wanted Madexx. I was pressing tame, then cancelling, hoping that someone seeing the tame icon would pass him by and not kill him, and that way I could hold him for a while. Couldn't find my friend, so I pulled up a /who list. Well, since I was distracted, I accidentally tamed this black Madexx. Annoyed that I failed to find an owner (and that he didn't spawn in green when I was the only one around to tame), I tossed him in the stable. Fast forward a couple days and another friend tamed a bronze Madexx. We were taking group pics, so I went to my stable and yanked out my black Madexx (who at this point I still didn't care for, I was intent on getting green). However, a funny thing happened. While we were there taking our pics, this black Madexx began to take on this feeling that he was mine. It's really rather difficult to explain. Nes had her green, Bloodd had his bronze (though he's still hoping for blue), up to that point I still didn't have one I liked.....but this black one started to really grow on me. He spawned for me. His was the only time that no one else was around when he spawned. He was the only one to spawn behind me. He was just special from the beginning. And, I do love his colors. It's just that he doesn't "match" my future gear, and I was letting that get in the way. Had it not been for Bloodd getting bronze Madexx, I might have never gotten the chance to give my black one a chance. I could have missed one of my favorite pets because I was obsessed with having a matching pet. Thank goodness Bloodd got his when he did. Now there's no way I could even think of replacing him with green, he's my little emo dude and I adore him.

[Cozzene]

For me, it was Panzer, my turtle. I don't even remember why I originally got him. I needed a tank, I guess, and that was his job. And how he became a part of my life! His pink and grey skin has changed to fiery, but to be quite honest, I wouldn't care if I'd never gotten the Terrorpene skin. Panzer is my beloved turtle.

HubbaWHA? I cannot see your stable, are you saying you have fire turtle skin but did not tame Terror? ...Or that you tamed Terror and named him Panzer?

I actually have a few.
-One is the shale spider. At first, meh, It was neat, sure, I'll get one. Now I freakin' love her. Yay Max.
-The other is/are my cats. Used to HATE cats because everyone was all over them, bestest eva! Yawn I was forced by a guild I left shortly after this stunt, and named it "hatethiscat" or something close. I really, really detested them. Now I love all 4 of mine. Especially Panini.

[Cialbi]

-One is the shale spider. At first, meh, It was neat, sure, I'll get one. Now I freakin' love her. Yay Max.

This. I got one right at level 82 out of Stonecore - it instantly became our PuG's little mascot. I'd been hearing about how horrible the shale spiders sounded, but I all I could hear was "squee!" coming from my new pet. Named it Silicase, which is what I would imagine an enzyme (they always end with -ase) that could cut through glass (silicon dioxide) would be named. I guess I somehow associated my shale spider with cutting glass - maybe it was because of the noise. I may swap out my pink shaley with an orange one, but the name and affection will remain unchanged

There are some pet classes that certain people can't stand for one reason or another. For me, those would be hyenas and ravagers (I'm sure there may be a few others, but I haven't tried taming one of them). I tried many hyenas once 4.0.1 hit, but found myself unable to get past their out of place Mickey Mouse ears and mangy hunchback look. Then I tamed a Scarlet Tracking Hound, since at the time I imagined that they would disappear due to them being turned into mastiffs on the beta (I didn't quite realize what exactly would happen). That blood-red coat seemed to somehow make me ignore what I had found ugly on other hyenas, and named him Sintyrr ('sin' being 'blood' in Thalassian, and 'tyr' being the name of the Scarlet Crusade stronghold in Eastern Plaguelands. I think 'tyr' is supposed to mean 'order' in Dwarven, but not sure). Of course, Sintyrr got abducted by the Twilight's Hammer or something, and replaced with a mastiff. I couldn't stand the dog, and sent it on its way. Found Slaverjaw, and now I have my Sintyrr again
Oh, and ravagers have never been easy for me to pick. They all seem to be different colorations of the same skeleton, and no one skin seemed to strongly appeal to me. I went with a color-changer from Blade's Edge Mountains, as an odd symbolism of my indecision. Well, 4.0.3 turned my chromatically-challenged ravager into the old Death Ravager model, and I wound up back at the Wowhead modelviewer, trying to find a ravager I liked. I went with a 'christmas ravager' from that weird place called Mazthoril in Winterspring. By this time, something was really beginning to bug me about the ravager models; they all have the most absurd-looking teeth! Well, someone on the Petopia forums who was trying out ravagers and had a thread about it discovered (not a new discovery, but it was sure news to me) that some ravagers have glowing eyes. Maybe that's what I want. Well, as it turns out, the glowy-eye ravagers actually have some subtle differences from other ravager models. Their back spines look cooler, their legs were different, and most importantly for me, their teeth weren't hideous! There were three skins of this ravager model; I promptly decided upon the green model, as it reminded me of Devil's Club, a plant that grows in the forests of this area and sure lives up to its name (the thing is covered in spikes, they grow tall and have huge leaves that are also coated in spikes, have a very unpleasant sting to the spikes, and the darn spikes will puncture through most gloves if you accidentally grab the wrong plant to steady yourself. I swear, these plants are malicious). Originally tried naming it after the genus of the Devil's Club, but 'Oplopanax' makes for a very weird pet name. Then, I saw a version of that hitler video meme where he was raging about having to tame a ravager "that looks like a spider - and a maggot. It's a goddamn spidermaggot!", and thus my ravager was renamed 'Spidermaggot'.

[Lisaara]

Ah, I have two Hyenas. Lisaara has the purpleish one named Luna. Jessibelle has Slaverjaw named Duncan. x3 I didnt like them at first for the same two reasons but I absolutely adored their noises and just those two colors seemed to make me overlook the ears.

[Novikova]

I'm kinda shocked that shale spiders and scorpids grew on me so much... I <3 my three squees and Madexxes.

[Teigan]

Um, I bonded with a gorilla. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I always hated them. But apparently, my goblin likes them...

[Kurasu]

For me, it was Panzer, my turtle. I don't even remember why I originally got him. I needed a tank, I guess, and that was his job. And how he became a part of my life! His pink and grey skin has changed to fiery, but to be quite honest, I wouldn't care if I'd never gotten the Terrorpene skin. Panzer is my beloved turtle.

HubbaWHA? I cannot see your stable, are you saying you have fire turtle skin but did not tame Terror? ...Or that you tamed Terror and named him Panzer?

I had the pink and grey turtle for eons, named Panzer. I later tamed Terrorpene and named him Panzer. But to be honest ,I still see him in my mind's eye as that little pink and grey turtle. I love the Terror skin too much to abandon it, but it's the Panzer underneath that makes him a *real* pet.

[Mahri]

This is Scamp. I ran aaaaall the way to Mulgore and tamed him as soon as I hit level 10 (this was in early BC). I was lucky and didn't have to wait.

http://img12.imageshack.us/f/wowscrnsho ... 34308.jpg/

He became my mascot all the way up through 70, and then I tamed a GTSG and named it Zero. Those two have been Mahri's BFFs since, in equal measure.

http://img843.imageshack.us/f/wowscrnsh ... 35013.jpg/

[pengupuff]

My biggest surprise is Vultros. I got him right after we got more stable slots when I went on a taming binge to snatch up all the old world rares. I ended up abandoning most of them, but Vultros held on to me for some reason. I've always had a penchant for gray animals (most of my irl pets are gray as well), so that may have something to do with it.

[Music]

When Chromie was available for taming I thought, nah who'd want that ugly thing?! I have Kurken! Did a guild achievement run and though, ok I'll tame him just to see what the hype was of having this core hound. I now use him in bgs, raids you name it! He grew on me so quick!! He's loud, people can hear him from the almost anywhere in the zone. Can't live without this pup.

[Kalhoun]

I never thought I would like beetles. I don't have anything against bugs, really, but they never struck me as something you would consider a "pet." I have a tortoise in RL, and I always liked the turtles in game, but for some reason never really kept one for very long. On a whim, after doing the quest in Uldum that spawns all those pretty gem-themed scarabs, I tamed this guy:



His name is Scooter. Scooter began questing with me, and farming rare mounts. That harden carapace skill is awesome. I was soon running around in Stormwind with Scooter out just because I like him. His idle animations are so cute!

I went a little beetle crazy and tamed a bunch of skins, including all four of the gem-themed ones from that quest. I decided on keeping this guy too.



I also want this guy, but I'm probably not going to get it until my friends are 85 and go with me to tame it -



Never thought I would be having this hard a time deciding on which beetle to keep.

[Foru21dr]

Um, I bonded with a gorilla. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I always hated them. But apparently, my goblin likes them...

Tis the same for me. I don't like gorillas, the noise they make, the scratching they do just seem to irritate me, but..... I go and get a gorilla as a joke. Can't remember now if it was Shaon, or Sochi that used the temp gorillas to tame King Mosh.. but she always commented that she felt sorry that she just used them to get Mosh. Was going to take this pet and show up saying he decided that he liked me better anyway.

I made a quick run through the cave, and was supprised to see that Uhk'loc was in there. Sochi was not on at that time so I just played and used him as my pet. Wow... in less than 1 hour of play... He will never leave Bitka's stables. I have him out quite often and he has saved me many a time from Elites and large mob groups. I just can't part with him.

[Lisaara]

hah! I kinda feel the same way but then I got the white gorilla and named him Xemnu.

[Vephriel]

Hmm, yup...just happened to me now.

Was feeling a bit restless and wanted to try out some pets, so I picked out a list of candidates and went on a short taming spree. It stopped very suddenly when I found that I was irresistibly fond of the black and red parrot. He matched so well with Veph, and as someone who's never liked the parrots as pets, it was definitely unexpected.

I knew almost instantly that his name was Redrum, so I think I've found myself yet another keeper.