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{{trope}}
[[File:
What do you give the guy with a [[Cool Ship]], [[Cool Shades]], and a [[Cool Sword]]? A Cool Pet! Said pet will be completely loyal to them, to the point of death (maybe even beyond...), and may be a [[MacGuffin]]. Said pet will also have a unique appearance, and may or may not be a rare mystic animal. A bit of [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]]? tends to occur since the pet will usually reflect its master in some way. Expect a cool pet to be an [[Empathy Pet]] or [[Bond Creatures|Bond Creature]] if there's supernatural happenings afoot.
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Can overlap with [[Action Pet]].
Compare and Contrast [[Mon
{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Pet Shop of Horrors]]''
** Count D has Q, a weird vampire bat/rabbit hybrid thing. {{spoiler|It turns out to be his grandfather}}.
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** There's combos like {{spoiler|Xanxus and Bester, his pet liger box weapon who also shows that it's a [[Bond Creature]] when it changes from a lion to said liger form when [[Good Scars, Evil Scars|Xanxus' scars]] show; Gokudera and Uri, who are both loose cannons with a bit of [[Cats Are Mean]]; and even the Arcobaleno all seem to have exotic companions.}}
*** And now... {{spoiler|[[Debut Queue|All the guardians now officially have some kind of pet]]. Tsuna seems to have a little lion with a vizard on it's head and Dying Will flames as a mane, and Yamamoto's got a dog that carries around ''[[Swords Akimbo|three swords]]''.}}
**** Not to mention {{spoiler|Squalo's [[Everything
* The main character of ''[[Outlaw Star]]'' [[Spin-Off]] ''[[Angel Links]]'', Meifon Li, has a Cool Pet in the form of [https://web.archive.org/web/20130316073101/http://www.jasms.de/anime/angel_links/taffei.jpg Taffei]. It [[Victoria's Secret Compartment|rides around in her cleavage]], and doubles as an [[Empathic Weapon]] by transforming into a sword when needed.
* Sakaki of ''[[Azumanga Daioh]]'' has Maya, a wild, rare, Iriomote Cat she adopted after his mother was killed by a car.
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. Pen-Pen, the [[True Art Is Angsty|only happy character]] to ever feature in the series. He sleeps in a fridge. And also, [[Everything
** [[Fridge Logic]], [[Incredibly Lame Pun|pun intended]] as Misato spent {{spoiler|several years in [[Mysterious Antarctica|Antarctica]] before and after the Second Impact.}} Why she would want a souvenir, however...
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid]]'' revealed that [[Warrior Prince|Hegemon Klaus Ingvalt]] had white leopards for pets, since in the land of Shutra, white leopards were considered as excellent guards.
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* {{spoiler|Puu}} from ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' {{spoiler|eventually morphs into this for Yusuke, getting its final form: a blazing phoenix}}.
* Nagi Sanzenin of ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler]]'' has a pet tiger, Tama, who she adopted as a cub. He's able to talk, but Nagi doesn't know that.
* Kyou from ''[[Clannad (visual novel)|Clannad]]'' keeps a wild boar known as Botan. For most of the story he's just a piglet, but even so, he's extremely well-behaved and trained (excepting his habit of following Kyou to school), especially for a boar that was born wild, not in captivity. In After Story (by which point he's full-grown, tusked, and fairly huge) he's even seen playing with five-year-old children!
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', Boa Hancock's [[Living Weapon|Snake Weapon]], Salome. Trained as a Snake Weapon, Salome can coil itself into a chair for Hancock to use as a throne or stiffen itself to be used like a bow, giving Hancock greater range for her Devil Fruit power. For a snake, Salome is very friendly and always smiling.
==
* ''[[Runaways]]'' has Old Lace, a genetically engineered dinosaur from the future.
* Lockjaw, the giant, teleporting bulldog belonging to Black Bolt of [[The Inhumans]].
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* ''[[Superman]]'' has [[Krypto the Superdog]], a little white dog who happens to be one of the most powerful living creatures on Earth, perhaps in the whole universe. And he wears a cute little red cape.
** Other DC heroes also had cool pets back in the day. Batman had Ace the Bat-Hound, Supergirl had Streaky the Supercat as well as a superhorse named Comet, and Superman also had a supermonkey named Beppo. The Kryptonian pets and several others also formed the Legion of Super-Pets in the [[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]] 30th century.
** In some adaptations, [[The Joker]] has two hyenas, Bud and Lou, although they often seem more loyal to [[Harley Quinn|Harley]] than to him.
* Most of the mutants in [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]] were kept as cool pets at one point or another. Leatherhead was an exotic pet who was flushed down the toilet when his owners couldn't/wouldn't keep him anymore, there are the titular turtles (of course), and Master Splinter who qualifies not by being a rat, but by being a rat who ''knows martial arts''.
▲== Films ==
* Dog in ''[[The Road Warrior]]''.
* Yoshi was much more ugly in the ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' film. He looked like a velociraptor.
* In ''[[Gamera|Gamera The Brave]]'', a small boy gets a pet turtle and names it "Toto". Guess who the turtle grows up to become...
* ''[[Gremlins
* ''[[The Mummy Trilogy|The Mummy Returns]]'': What could possibly make Ardeth Bey ''more awesome''? Oh, look, HE HAS A FALCON.
* Blood, from ''[[A Boy and His Dog]]'', is a genetically-modified mutt with human-level intelligence and the ability to communicate psychically with his human.
* The Robinsons get a lot of these in Disney's ''[[Swiss Family Robinson (film)|Swiss Family Robinson]]'', including a monkey, a baby elephant, an ostrich, and a Zebra.
* Inverted in 2019's ''[[Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019 film)|Godzilla: King of the Monsters]]'' with this exchange:
{{quote|'''Senator Williams:''' So you'd want to make Godzilla our pet.
'''Dr. Ishiro Serizawa:''' No. We will be ''his''.}}
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* ''[[Duumvirate]]'' and its prequel have Fido, a bioengineered white-furred canine quite a bit smarter and ''much'' deadlier than the average [[Right-Hand Attack Dog]], and like its owners has a taste for [[I'm a Humanitarian|manflesh]].
* Vlad in Steven Brust's ''[[Dragaera]]'' books has a [[Shoulder-Sized Dragon|jhereg]] as his familiar. However, Loiosh isn't really a ''pet'' per se, since he's as smart as a human and a vibrant character in his own right.
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** At the end of ''A Game of Thrones'', Dany gets three [[Shoulder-Sized Dragon|baby dragons]]. A part of her plotline involves trying to find two more riders for them when they're grown. Also, dragons are the sigil of House Targaryen.
** The Stark children [[And Zoidberg|and]] [[Heroic Bastard|Jon]] all have enormous direwolves, which are more than pets or friends - they are a part of them. Direwolves, the sigil of House Stark, haven't been seen in living memory. Sansa loses hers early on, unfortunately, and Arya is separated from hers.
** Skinchangers, like the Stark children, always have a cool pet of some kind to warg into. Varamyr has three wolves, a bear, and a shadowcat (the impracticality of owning the latter two is [[Lampshade
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==▼
▲== Live-Action TV ==
* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the Doctor has K-9, a charming little low-budget robot dog who calls him "Master" in a sweet little electronic voice and shoots lasers out of his nose. The Doctor had two versions of K-9. K-9 Mark III appeared in the short lived spinoff ''[[K-9 and Company]]'' with ''Doctor Who'' companion Sarah Jane Smith, as well as in the ''Doctor Who'' stories "The Five Doctors" and "School Reunion". Following a [[Heroic Sacrifice]], Mark III was replaced by Mark IV, who subsequently made several appearances on ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'' as Sarah Jane's, and later her son Luke's, pet.
** Meta example: [[Matt Smith]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUX02RGfs14#t=0m16s wants a badger]. (And yes, he gets one. Yes, we love him. Yes, we love Matt too.)
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* ''[[Key West]]'': Gumbo has a pet female alligator named Tickle [sic] Pink, which he adorns with a pink ribbon around the neck. He treats her like a "swamp dog."
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* ''[[Popeye]]'' (comic and cartoon) had the protagonist's magical pet Eugene the Jeep, a dog-like creature with yellow fur who can turn invisible and teleport.
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==
* [[Norse Mythology]]
** Odin has two ravens, Huginn ("thought") and Muninn ("memory"). Each day, they fly around the world, observing what happens in the mortal realm, then return to Asgard, perch on their master's shoulders, and whisper to him all they've seen. He also has two wolves, Geri and Freki. Because Odin himself does not eat, they accompany him to the feasting hall of Valhalla, where he gives them the food from his own plate.
** Thor has two ferocious goats, Tanngrisnir ("teeth-barer" or "snarler") and Tanngnjóstr ("teeth grinder") that pull his chariot. Thor can kill these goats, then butcher and cook their flesh, and so long as the bones remain intact, they come back to life at the next sunrise.
==
* [[Forgotten Realms|Drizzt]] has Guenhwyvar, who is animal companion ''and'' nigh-immortal figurine-summoned monster at the same time.
* [[Rebellious Princess|Miliana]] da [[Forgotten Realms|Sumbria]] got some beautiful "silly bird". Let's just say there was a good reason why it was called ''"sacred, untouchable, and extremely dangerous; avoid at all cost"'' in a treatise on all sorts of flying creatures ''including literally hellish ones''.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The ''[[Fallout]]'' series has Dogmeat, an homage to Dog in ''[[Mad Max]]''.
* ''[[Pokémon]]'' is the king of this trope. Seriously, in recent games (IE: Diamond/Pearl/Platinum) you are given the chance to capture Arceus (the Pokémon counterpart of God). Not only that, but in HeartGold and SoulSilver, the remakes of Gold and Silver, you can get that God to follow you around. Or to create for you a being who controls time, space or antimatter. "You" being a mere human.
** Even better in the fifth gen where you can catch among other things; an Archeopteryx, a Hydra, what is basically the ''Iron Giant'' and one that is basically Mothra.
* [[King of Fighters]]' Rugal has a pet panther. His children, Adel and Rose, have a panther ''kitten'' (apparently the offspring of their father's pet).
* ''[[Medabots]]'' is also relevant, and is pretty much the [[Mecha]] version of Pokémon.
* ''[[Digimon]]'' is also relevant, and the [[PS 1]] game is made of awesome, although it has a shit ton of bugs and glitches.
** Also, who could forget the little handheld consoles that kicked Tamigochis out the fucking window?
* Rush, Treble, Tango, and Beat are robot animals from ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]''. The first two can even fuse with Mega Man and Bass respectively to make them more powerful.
* Rider in ''[[Fate/stay night
* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' has Shadow, with his dog Interceptor. He's a completely normal guard dog...who can block any physical attack and take no damage and whose own attacks ignore any defense.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' has Rinoa's dog Angelo, who is used in her Limit Breaks and does things no normal dog is capable of.
* ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]''
** Eiko carries around a moogle which, as it turns out, is actually a God, and goes completely batshit when two jesters try to engage in sexual activity with the young girl.
** Kuja uses a silver dragon to fly from point A to B before stealing Cid's prototype airship. The dragon turns out to be Garland's pet, but he's never seen riding it,
** The manager of the Treno weapons shop in tries to be like Jabba the Hutt, in that he keeps a massive creature all cooped up under the shop, just to see people try to fight it.
* In ''[[The Darkness]]'', Jackie can summon little gremlins to do his bidding, who play about once their job is done.
* In ''[[Manhunt]]'', The Director keeps a psychotic, naked fat man with a pig's mask as a captive in a mansion attic, this is relevant to the trope, I don't care what you say.
* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'', The End has a parrot which is actually catchable, killable, and edible. Upsetting the old bastard with the sight of a skeletal parrot makes him even harder to kill.
* Speaking of useful pet dogs, in ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'' Yuri Lowell's pet dog Repede is more of a [[Big Badass Wolf]] who fights with a [[Cutlass Between the Teeth|dagger in its mouth]] and carries a pipe with him. And yes, Repede is a fully playable character.
** Reading the above made me think of [[Persona 3|Koromaru]], a dog/party member who has a similar fighting style.
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* ''[[Mabinogi (video game)|Mabinogi]]'' has a wide variety of pets which can be bought for real money, ranging from the tame (ordinary birds, mini elephants, etc.) to the fearsome ([[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?|venomous snakes]] and [[Giant Spider|giant spiders]]) to the useful ([[Eye of Newt|herb]]-giving gnus and [[Flying Broomstick|flying broomsticks]]) to the [[Crazy Awesome]] ([[Dragon Rider|riding-size dragons]] and [[Hellish Horse|hellish horses]]).
* In ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'', Dr. McNinja's sidekick, Gordito, has Yoshi, his pet velociraptor.
** And, while she's not technically a pet, his receptionist is a gorilla.
*** And ''she'' has a pet kitten. That has an eyepatch.
* In ''[[Chapel Chronicles|The Chapel Chronicles]]'', [http://www.chapelchronicles.com/comic/22 The Elegance of the Hedgehog], Chapel adopts a hedgehog. She names him Rupert as a [[Shout-Out]] to Rupert Giles in [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]].
* In ''[[Drowtales]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20190814113757/http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?id=1169 Mel has a giant spider named Zhor] (who is actually a magically transformed elf), and Ariel has '[https://web.archive.org/web/20190814113757/http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?id=529 squishy]'.
** Zhor isn't exactly a pet, though - he's Mel's companion and [[Interspecies Romance|occasional lover.]] {{spoiler|He's also Ariel's father!}}
* ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' has Molly's alien [[Ugly Cute|tentacle bunny,]] Snookums. Also, all the [[Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti|Bigfeet]] living outside town have [[Unicorn
* In ''[[Triquetra Cats]]'', Rain has Pito-Pita Chan, a Gen 5 [[Mix-and-Match Critters|Splio Beast]], although in this reality it's not considered overly exotic, just uncommon (more akin to having a rabbit for a pet rather than a dog or a cat),
* Tedd of ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' has [http://egscomics.com/sketchbook/?date=2002-07-04 Jeremy], "a creature nature never intended."
* ''[[Strawberry Syrup]]'' has Sammy's dog which is a crossbedd between a pitbull and a German Shepherd and attacks anything.
* In ''[[Homestuck]]'', [[Meaningful Name|Becquerel]] (or Bec for short), is Jade's pet <s>devilbeast</s> [[Big Friendly Dog]] that also serves as her Guardian. {{spoiler|Bec also has been shown to have some impressive [[Reality Warper|Reality Warping]] skills, is [[Immune to Bullets]] (he ''plays fetch'' with them), and also happens to be roughly 300 million years old.}}
* Miya Chapman of ''[[Sodium Eyes]]'' keeps a pet [[Small Taxonomy Pools|West Indian Ocean Coelacanth]] named Secant in what looks like a 30-gallon aquarium. [[What Measure Is a Non-Cute?|Poor fish...]].
* ''[[Freefall
* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' Bun-bun was intended to be this, but turned out to be [[Killer Rabbit|killer enough rabbit]] to avert [[Everything's Worse with Bears]]. Kiki the ferret is still this. Aylee has been this more often than not, but now that she's taken humanoid form, the ZHOAS takes on the role, at least in Kiki's interactions with it.
* In ''[[Wapsi Square]]'', Bud seems to have a pet sea monster named [http://wapsisquare.com/comic/awful-stench/ Stinky.]
* Virus of ''[[Exterminatus Now]]'' has a [[Sonic Adventure|Chao]] named Blasphemy who absorbed demon DNA and is apparently smart enough to play ''Halo''. It was also mentioned that he has an [[Warhammer
* Davan from ''[[Something
* Mia from ''[[Unintentionally Pretentious]]'' has [http://www.unintentionallypretentious.com/index.asp?c=34 Aibo], her robotic [http://www.unintentionallypretentious.com/index.asp?c=101 guide dog] and [http://www.unintentionallypretentious.com/index.asp?c=121 guardian], making it technically her [[Angry Guard Dog]] with a manual [[Berserk Button]].
** And occasionally as [http://www.unintentionallypretentious.com/index.asp?c=59 a household appliance].
== [[Web Originals]] ==
▲== Web Originals ==
* In ''[[The Impossible Man]]'', there's Angela's pet [[Chupacabra]], Eli, who is a genuine [[Urban Legends|Urban Legend]] and not a [[Mon|Kaijumon]].
* The ''[[Anti Cliche and Mary Sue Elimination Society]]'':
** Valerie has Ari, an empathetic mini-dragon.
** Ben has Shirley the Cliche Stick, although she's less of a pet and more of a tormentor.
** Dave has Asuka, a [[Pokémon|Luxray]].
** Stephen has a [[Eldritch Abomination|baby Cthulhu]]. Named [[Fluffy the Terrible|Lil' C]].
* See also: [http://johnconway.co/dinosaur_pet_guide The Dinosaur Pet Guide] by John Conway.
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
* [[Everything Is Better With Dinosaurs]], right? [[The Flintstones|Fred Flintstone]] has one for a pet. Barney, on the other hand, has a pet kangaroo, who actually makes a great babysitter for both Pebbles and Bam-Bam.
▲== Western Animation ==
* Cheryl, from ''[[Archer]]'', owns a pet ocelot who is named Babou, in reference to [[Salvador Dali]]'s pet of the same name.
* Ron's naked mole rat, Rufus, in ''[[Kim Possible]]''. Comes in very handy. Once or twice acts as a
* Nick Tatapolous is technically Zilla Jr's owner (Zilla Jr thinks Nick is his father due to "imprinting") in ''[[Godzilla: The Series]]''.
* In ''[[The Secret Saturdays]]'', Zak has a [[wikipedia:Komodo dragon|komodo dragon]], a bigfoot and an [[wikipedia:Ornithocheirus|ornithocheirus]].
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* In ''[[The Rescuers]]'', the baddies tend to have these. One had two alligators, another had a water monitor. Also, the good "swamp folk" have a dragonfly named "Evinrude".
* Nibbler in ''[[Futurama]]''. A pet that poops fuel for the [[Cool Ship]]? Awesome indeed.
*
* ''[[The Herculoids]]'' had five, count 'em, ''five'' of them.
** The Herculoids' non-human members weren't ''pets'' so much as ''soldiers''. Call Gloop or Gleep a "pet" and you might find yourself in a world o' sentient-silly-putty hurt.
* The girl ghouls from ''[[Scooby Doo]] and the Ghoul School'' have a cranky baby dragon as a pet.
* [[Lilo
* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' own Perry the Platypus, who, for bonus cool points, is also a secret agent.
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender
** Momo the flying lemur.
** Combustion man's hawk.
* [[Johnny Test]] has Dukey, a talking dog, and Reptoslicer, a genetically altered monster that could slice and dice anything and is vicious. It also makes great salsa.
* Most of ''[[My Little Pony:
** Twilight Sparkle has an ultra-competent owl named Owlowiscious
** Pinkie Pie has a toothless alligator named Gummy
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* A [[Running Gag]] on ''[[Animaniacs]]'' was "Wanna meet ''my'' pet?" When faced with some otherwise terrifying monster, Dot would ask the aforementioned question, holding a small box in her hands. From the box would emerge a [[Hammerspace|disproportionately huge]] "pet" that would terrify the first one. On at least one occasion Dot's pet was a giant Jerry Lewis with an [[Alien]]-esque tongue (i.e. his tongue was a smaller Jerry Lewis) that said [[Crowning Moment of Funny|"Raar! Monster!"]]
* ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'': Superboy not only gets a giant mechanical alien sphere that latches onto him like a puppy in "Bereft", but he also befriends a mutated white wolf in "Alpha Male" after removing the [[Explosive Leash]] electric collar that was forcing it and the other mutant animals to attack him and his teammates. Miss Martian attributes this to Superboy's nature as a "stray" like them.
* Petey from an episode of ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]''. Petey is a genetically engineered termite who eats metal instead of wood, created by Dexter to clean up the mess that DeeDee always makes when she sneaks into his lab, with the personality of a friendly dog.
* In ''[[Kim Possible]]'', Ron's pet hairless mole rat Rufus. Not only is he kind of cute, he's super-smart, able to program a VCR and fix a jammed computer printer in seconds. Although he ''does'' wind up with part of Kim's report printed on ''him'' in the process, which is also kind of cute.
* Waddles, Mabel's pet pig on ''[[Gravity Falls]]''; even cooler in one episode where [[Talking Animal| magic enables him to talk.]]
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
* As noted above, quite a number of people keep exotic pets in real life. Many of these aquire exotic pets primarily for the [[Rule of Cool|coolness factor]]; and are unprepared to deal with the difficult and often complex dietary and care requirements. Unlike fictional examples, this commonly results in poor health and drastically shortened lifespan; as well as animals being abandoned into the wild when their owners are unable or unwilling to continue to care for them. Many are also implicated in attacks on people, or spreading of non-native diseases and parasites to native animal populations. And finding veternarians able to treat exotic pets is extremely difficult, if not outright impossible. Other
▲== Real Life ==
▲* As noted above, quite a number of people keep exotic pets in real life. Many of these aquire exotic pets primarily for the [[Rule of Cool|coolness factor]]; and are unprepared to deal with the difficult and often complex dietary and care requirements. Unlike fictional examples, this commonly results in poor health and drastically shortened lifespan; as well as animals being abandoned into the wild when their owners are unable or unwilling to continue to care for them. Many are also implicated in attacks on people, or spreading of non-native diseases and parasites to native animal populations. And finding veternarians able to treat exotic pets is extremely difficult, if not outright impossible. Other pets -- such as rats, hamsters, ferrets, and mice -- athough still technically classed as "exotic", are common enough and simple enough to care for that they present few if any challenges beyond those faced by dog and cat owners.
** Exotic pets frequently undergo fads; where a pet which is featured on a television program or movie, or kept by a celebrity, triggers a flood of people obtaining similar pets. Recent fads have included pot-bellied pigs, sugar gliders, and pygmy hedgehogs. These usually die out quickly, and result in many abandoned or poorly treated animals. Occasionally, fad pets with less challenging requirements have caught on more widely. This usually results in better resources being developed, greatly decreasing the difficulty of care, and leading to even greater popularity. A classic example is the ferret, a rare exotic pet less than 2 decades ago; now increasingly commonplace as pre-made diet, housing, and other care supplies are more widely available.
** Major advances have also been made in tropical fresh- and saltwater fish keeping; greatly increasing their popularity. As the technology continues to improve, even more exotic and "cool" creatures become available; including some that were effectively impossible to keep less than a decade previously.
** Some of the most commonly abandoned exotic pets are Green Iguanas, Red-Eared Slider turtles, and Burmese Pythons; with the "cool" factor being the most common motivations for Burmese Pythons in particular. They are often advertised in pet shops as "simple to care for"; and both are commonly described as "even tempered" or having a "friendly personality". While the latter part may be true, the former definitely is not. While starting small, Green Iguanas get up to 6 feet long, and have highly specialized care requirements, including a very limited diet and the need for large amounts of UV light; and require far more attention than dogs and cats to become adequately socialized. Burmese pythons will reach between 15 and 20 feet as adults, weighing between 100 and 200 pounds; and go from eating mice and rats, to eating rabbits, chickens, and pigs.
** Unlike dogs and cats, abandoned exotics rarely survive long in the wild, due to the dramatic differences in climate and food sources between their native environment, and where they're released. However, there are exceptions to this, and a few have been released in such numbers that they have managed to establish breeding populations and gone on to become major pests. Notable examples include goldfish and carp in many parts of the US and Australia; [http://www.bankstown.nsw.gov.au/Indian-Myna-Fact-Sheet/default.aspx Indian Mynahs]{{Dead link}} in parts of Australia; [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0603_040603_invasivespecies.html Burmese Pythons in Florida]; and [[wikipedia:Red-eared slider|Red-Eared Slider turtles]] in the southern and western regions of the US. Many countries and US states ban particular exotic pets, in an attempt to prevent this problem.
** Parrots are generally pretty cool pets. They're smart and social, you can train them to sit on your shoulder and do tricks, and they're pretty much the only animals [[Funny Talking Animal|that can talk]]. However, like other pets listed on the [[Real Life]] examples, many buyers just see the "cool" part of it without realizing what they're getting into. Parrots, especially the larger ones, are loud, demanding, and need constant attention. Caring for them is appropriately described as caring for a human toddler. And many live for several decades. Many parrots often get neglected and abandoned, often sent to zoos or animal shelters. Even smaller, easier species like parakeets need socialization to be good pets, though since they're so cheap (and thus "throwaway pets" to many) people are more willing to get rid of them.
** However, on the bright side, there are people like [http://www.rexano.org/ Rexano] who promote ''responsible'' ownership. Even they say how cool it is to have an exotic pet but state that not only do animals have their own temperaments and that owners have to go extra lengths to keep animals like a Caracal over just a standard cat like a Maine Coon. And that one has to socialize an animal (especially a skunk) a lot when it's young so that it will remain that way when it's older. Even ''Mountain Lions'' can be ''very'' friendly towards a responsible person they form a bond with. (It helps that Mountain Lions are more related to domestic housecats than actual lions.)
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** Several United States Presidents have also done so. For example, [[Thomas Jefferson]] had two [[Everything's Worse with Bears|bear cubs]], [[John Quincy Adams]] had an alligator, [[Martin Van Buren]] (briefly) had two [[Panthera Awesome|tiger cubs]], [[Benjamin Harrison]] had two possums, and [[Herbert Hoover]] had two crocodiles. [[Calvin Coolidge]], though, was the champion of this trope; his pets included a bobcat, two [[Panthera Awesome|lions]], a pygmy hippopotamus, a [[Kangaroos Represent Australia|wallaby]], a duiker (miniature antelope), and a [[Everything's Worse with Bears|black bear]].
* [[Salvador Dali]] often traveled with his pet ocelot, Babou.
* Gilberto Shedden of Costa Rica [http://ticotimes.com/costa-rica/crocodile-man-sarapiqui-tarzan was best friends with a large crocodile named Pocho], swimming and playing with him, and even giving him belly rubs. Sadly, Pocho [https://web.archive.org/web/20130725162218/http://www.3news.co.nz/Costa-Rica-mourns-death-of-famous-crocodile-Poncho/tabid/417/articleID/229904/Default.aspx recently died of old age], but in a wonderful twist, he never once attacked Gilberto, or otherwise harmed him in the 20 or so years they were together.
* [[Paris Hilton]] owns a kinkajou, an exotic relative of the raccoon. It received media attention when it bit her, and criticisms over it also ensued over the fact that pet kinkajous are illegal in California, which did raise questions about how qualified she was to care for an animal with specialized care. Nonetheless, she was able to keep the kinkajou.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Television Is Trying to Kill Us]]
[[Category:Rule of Cool]]
[[Category:Loyal Animal Companion]]
[[Category:Pet and Animal Companion Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Cool Pet]]
[[Category:The Utterly and Completely Definitive Guide to Cool]]
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