I recently had an e-mail from somebody who wanted to hear more stories about my pets… where I got them, how they got their names, when I use them, how they fit in to my character roleplayingwise, etc. Now on the one hand, I was a little worried about fulfilling this request, because I feel like I’ve already talked about most of this at some point. But on the other hand, it was probably a while ago and I’ve gained a lot of new readers since then, and like most hunters I turn into a proud gushing grandma when asked about my pets, especially seeing as I am a self-professed Pokemon hunter who freaks out over pets.

So let’s talk. And if you’ve heard this all already, feel free to skip it. >.>

Tux was the first. The first pet ever. He was level eight and I was level ten and for some reason he didn’t leave me when I didn’t feed him for such a long time– since back then pets ran away when they were unhappy. My adventuring companion throughout most of Vanilla WoW, he has never been my first pet to hit the level cap of the day, but he has always hit it eventually.

Sometimes I get this urge to swap Tux for one of those crazy rainbow owls. Because he’s a special pet and it feels like it would somehow be a weird way of “evolving” him to a form more befitting of him. I could still name him Tux, and it would still “be” Tux. But then I look at the big gray featherhead, the same ball of pixels I’ve had since my first week of World of Warcraft ever, and I can’t do it.

To sate my longing for the rainbow owl though, I tamed one on another character. >.>

Tux spends most of his time in the stable these days, which is sort of sad, but unfortunately he is not a very PvE-viable pet and I haven’t done any serious PvP in a loooong time. He’s pretty dang good at doing dailies and stuff though. *nods* He also tends to be the pet I pick for screenshots and posing, because it’s supposed to be Tawyn & Tux, dang it!

Named for the mascot of the main operating system I game on… heck, the only operating system I played WoW on, period, for the first 69 levels of Tawyn’s existence..

Locke was the rare spawn I tamed at 4am server time. There were two reasons: one, he was teal. My favorite color. ’twas a given. Two, I was reading hunter blogs regularly by now (heck, I was writing one) and I had come to the sad realization that a lot of people disliked hunters who instanced with flying pets because they had big flappy wings that got in the way. I wanted a backup pet to be able to take into instances who wouldn’t annoy anyone, and the kitty was the winner.

Locke was the Big Bad Raiding Pet through most of Burning Crusade until towards the end when he was replaced by… the next pet I shall be talking about. It actually got to the point where most of my guildies saw me as Tawyn & Locke instead of Tawyn & Tux, which I sort of had mixed feelings about. I mean, I loved Locke, but it seemed odd. Locke also became the butt of a solid handful of inside jokes that still exist among my friends’ circle, the best being that he was going to leave me, don a monocle, top hat, and dastardly mustache, and become the new endboss of Heroic Mech. Long story.

These days he has been largely stabled in favor of Wash, although he comes out sometimes for nostalgia’s sake. The last time I brought him to a raid, though, there were five hunters there all told and every single one had a cat and one of them was the exact same skin as Locke. It bugged me enough that halfway through during a break I went and swapped him out for my raptor. >.> Sorry, Locke. It was really confusing though… all those kitties… /twitch. My Locke was the only one going Big Red though. <3 He is named either after John Locke or Locke Cole… take your pick!

Eltanin is the Windserpent who became the Burning Crusade raiding pet after Locke. Lightning Breath for the win! I love this guy– beautiful skin and I just adore windserpents. I went into ZG solo to tame him, the story of which I chronicled in this blog!

Sadly with the advent of 3.0 he no longer was a good raid/instancing pet so while he alternated with my other pets during my leveling, he has been stuck at level 79 for a while. I love to pull him out of the stable sometimes and strut around with him, just because I think he’s gorgeous. I wish I could use him more often.

He was named after the brightest star in the constellation Draco.

Wash has a long story to him. As I’m sure most of you lovely folks have gathered, he’s rather near and dear to my heart, even though I’d released him for some time and didn’t re-tame him until recently. He is my current raiding/instancing pet, partially because I am so attached to him, partially because I simply got tired of having a cat like everyone else (again– sorry Locke!), and partially because his DPS is phenominal– I maintain that he performs better than my cat does in my experience, largely I think because of Savage Rend. When it crits, it increases the damage he deals by 10% for 30 seconds. When you are a Beast Master hunter as I am, this crits a lot, and the cooldown is down to something like 46 seconds, so it’s up– a LOT of the time.

Mostly I just think Wash is adorable. I’ve always liked dinosaurs. Protoceratops are my favorite, but for the lack of them in the game, a raptor will do.

…and, come on, you mean the story behind his name isn’t obvious enough? =P

My fifth stable slot is currently in a state of flux. Usually it’s occupied by a tenacity pet to make up for my lack of one, but over the past several months a bear, a rhino, an eagle, a wolf, a turtle, and now currently a teal worm (named Nachi) have all resided there. Who will get the fifth stable slot permanently? I dunno. A part of me really wants Loque’nahak, not so much because I like the look, so much as it seems to be the ultimate badge of Beast Master hunter pride. (Although, I do like the look, but not to the point that I would get him otherwise, if it wasn’t such a symbol of my favorite spec.) Still, I’ve circled the Basin a bazillion times over the past few months while herbing– yes, following “the route” and keeping a casual eye out– and I’ve never seen hide nor hair, not to mention then I wouldn’t have any room for my token tenacity pet, so… I’m really not sure!

From a roleplaying standpoint, Tawyn considers all her pets to be very important to her, and her closest friends. She only keeps them with stable masters that she trusts (she’s good friends with the dwarven hunters in Stormwind) and the stories I write about her often involve multiple pets all out at once… hey, I can dream, right?

Next up, if enough people are interested… the stories behind the pets of my other hunters!

…don’t give me that look. We’ve already established that I’m a Crazy Pet Lady.