Cool Pet: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Pet Shop of Horrors]]''

** Count D has Q, a weird vampire bat/rabbit hybrid thing. {{spoiler|It turns out to be his grandfather}}.

* 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!

 

* ''[[Runaways]]'' has Old Lace, a genetically engineered dinosaur from the future.

* Lockjaw, the giant, teleporting bulldog belonging to Black Bolt of [[The Inhumans]].

* 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''.

 

* 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...

* ''[[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.

 

* ''[[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.

** 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]]d and [[Deconstructed]]). Orell has an eagle. Borroq has a large boar.

 

* 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.)

* ''[[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."

 

* [[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''.

 

* The ''[[Fallout]]'' series has Dogmeat, an homage to Dog in ''[[Mad Max]]''.

* [[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).

** 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.

* ''[[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.

* ''[[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.

** 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]]s as pets.

* 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...]].

* ''[[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.]

* 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].

 

* In ''[[The Impossible Man]]'', there's Angela's pet [[Chupacabra]], Eli, who is a genuine [[Urban Legends|Urban Legend]] and not a [[Mon|Kaijumon]].

** 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.

* See also: [http://johnconway.co/dinosaur_pet_guide The Dinosaur Pet Guide] by John Conway.

 

* [[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.

* Cheryl, from ''[[Archer]]'', owns a pet ocelot who is named Babou, in reference to [[Salvador Dali]]'s pet of the same name.

* 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]].

* 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.

* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' own Perry the Platypus, who, for bonus cool points, is also a secret agent.

** 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.

** Twilight Sparkle has an ultra-competent owl named Owlowiscious

** Pinkie Pie has a toothless alligator named Gummy

* Waddles, Mabel's pet pig on ''[[Gravity Falls]]''; even cooler in one episode where [[Talking Animal| magic enables him to talk.]]

 

* 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.