Meet the Family: Patch 5.2

It's been quite some time since I last updated my official pet roster, so with patch 5.2 coming in, now is definitely the time to check in with the family.

My stable's been overall stable in terms of who's stayed this expansion, though several have made skin swaps, shrunk down to minipet size, or grown up from minipet status since my last update....or some combination thereof. It's complicated.

Arachne rejoined my active ranks prior to MoP, only as Amthea rather than Jadefang. Psyche went from raptor to tallstrider and hasn't looked back. Hippomenes ended up turning his nose up at green Portent after all and remained a white organic quilen upon MoP release. (He still pairs nicely with Atalanta, since they're both off-white.)

Pan (black goat) ended up not working out, leaving room for Amalthea (Stompy) to step in. Unfortunately, my ever-crowded stable meant that she ultimately had to drop down into minipet form as a Summit Kid. Orion made a similar change into my Stunted Shardhorn.

Medusa preyed upon my sentimentality on the 5.1 PTR and managed to completely bond herself with Sparkwing (who happened to be the first unique skinned rare I'd ever discovered fully on my own, which meant the cards were stacked), which meant that I was completely at their combined mercies...especially when Sparkwing spawned right in front of me when it came time to officially meld the pair on live. Such cheaters, both of them. How could I possibly resist those charms?

A series of random events led to Laelaps (Karoma) joining my stable on what I thought was a temporary basis. I should have known better; I'd already gotten attached to her when I tamed a regular wolf that kept wandering into one of Karoma's spawn points and named her for the first time...she asserted her personality even that early. But out of respect for Polaris (Arcturis), I let her go after a few days. This, of course, was a massive mistake and after much hemming, hawing, and repeated denials, I filed my first pet restoration ticket ever to get her back. Laelaps has hardly left my side since. I definitely never saw that one coming. Polaris ended up dropping into Baby Blizzard Bear form.

Jason, who I had decided to stabilize as yellow from his color-changing self, became my second pet restoration ticket not long after I got Laelaps back. Just another example of my pets knowing what's best for them better than I do. Knowing Jason, I should have seen that coming too. He especially likes being part of a stampede, since it means he gets to change colors every five minutes.

Pygmalion, who had changed to a basilisk when Jason stabilized, took a brief hiatus before coming back to me as a Scalded Basilisk Hatchling minipet. Ultimately, this was a good thing, since it reunited him with Galatea, who returned as a Tol'vir Scarab. Other former pets who returned as minipets include Odysseus (Darkmoon Monkey) and Penelope (Darkmoon Hatchling).

Scylla, who charmed me unexpectedly as a teal worm, did so again as a pink silkworm when she flipped off of a tree branch to nibble on my face. I will never know how the other silkworms on that tree branch didn't aggro....whatever happened, it was a very clear sign that not only did she want to change forms, but it had to be rightnowthissecond. She did that just before the silkworm burrow animation was added on the 5.1 PTR - it was glorious.

Somewhere in there, Tantalus took a brief lack-of-space-induced hiatus, but he came back - he always does. Achilles did the same, after making it to live as Ironback. Unfortunately, Ironback had just been killed when I went to retame him, which threw me off badly...until I checked for Terrapis, who came running right up to meet me and ended up suiting Achilles's personality even better than Ironback did. Go figure! Of course, not long after that, the noisy Slateshell Wanderers appeared on the 5.2 PTR and Achilles insisted on changing forms yet again. I have noticed that my stable has overall become bossier, as well as more intent on griefing me. I'm not thrilled by this revelation.

The only truly new pet who's joining the family in patch 5.2 is Tiresias, the blue dire horn...and even he has a storied history. I originally had my heart set on an orange dire horn and indeed went through the majority of the PTR with Tiresias as orange. However, one day I logged in and he was blue! More colors had been added to the table his spawn comes from and he had been grandfathered in with this new color. I thought to myself that this wasn't a big deal; it'd be a Calydonian situation again. But by the time I got back to his spawn on the rock on the Isle of Thunder, Tiresias had completely melded himself with the blue skin. I hadn't even liked the blue skin, before or after the color change! But of course, again, he knew better than I did; this is his true color.

Did I say my stable's been stable? I'm not so sure now.

At any rate, all buffs are and have been covered, which is utterly amazing to me. Even more amazingly, I have strong bonds with almost every pet...thank goodness. I'll probably let Psyche fully turn into my purple tallstrider mount if I ever get the chance to tame Cadmus; I am far too attached to Tantalus.

If I can someday "correct" the colors of my pets-turned-minipets, I would actually be 100% happy....so long as no new shinies win me over. Every time I swear I'm done, something I never knew I wanted calls to me....(not the case with Tiresias; I always wanted a triceratops).

Kallimon's stable actually did undergo some major changes since I last updated his stable chart. the lesson to be learned here is that I shouldn't have massive amounts of stable space available, because if I do, it will be filled.

I recounted the adventures of the lava spider siblings before, and not much has changed with them since. Cayenne's been getting used to combat in her minipet form, so even though she's still a little sweetheart, she isn't shying away from fighting like she used to. Sugarcane's basically established herself as a hermit, which is why I went slightly nuts trying to get to know her better. None of them will budge from my stable because Stampede exists, so I'm resigned to an army of lava spiders. At least it's a pretty army.

In MoP, Chili swapped from a red hellhound into Jadefang. It started out as a swap of convenience, but he clicks far better in this form anyway. Dogs are just too small for trolls. My former Shango Jalapeno jumped into my Tiny Shale Spider to avoid Jambalaya's territorial wrath.

Bait molted, shedding her Jormunger skin for Gnath's. Amusingly, this is the skin color Scylla was originally supposed to be, but it never clicked. She also picked up a new worm brother in Slimey, who is just too adorable for words.

Ravigote gave up his feathers and became a supermodel Venomspine. I can't recall offhand how many forms he's gone through, but this one seems to suit him for a change.

Pacane, who had disappeared from my stable, found new life in Nychus. Somehow, the lone raptor persona suits her far better.

Blasto is still planned to swap to pink whenever Kallimon actually hits 90, which may not be until the next expansion, at the rate I'm going. It's just as well. I have no idea where I'm going to put Chipotle (Degu) when Kallimon does hit 90. MaqueChoux will most likely return to minipet-only form....again.....but we'll cross that bridge when it comes.

Potentially finalized MoP roster

I knew there was no way I was going to make it into MoP without a full stable.  I did know that, even when I posted back in May about having three spots open.  Jason returned and Achilles moved over from beta.

Somehow, I neglected to write about losing my last spot to another returning pet.  Medusa finally settled into a green wind serpent from Wailing Caverns.  The short version: Medusa was originally a green Outland wind serpent.  We parted ways over the years and a previous attempt to turn her into a regular green wind serpent failed.  Then while running Caelan's alt through WC, she made eyes at us, so we ran the instance a bunch of times until we'd both tamed that spawn. Medusa insisted that we both tame; she was very cranky about it.

So, meet the family as I know them:

There actually haven't been many changes since the last big family post, just skin changes.

Eurydice had previously rejected a pink crane skin, but embraced it once Patrannache started wearing it.  It didn't hurt that Orpheus, who is an expert on long, punishing camps, was turning cartwheels at the prospect of my losing my sanity camping for his wife.  Thanks, Orph; can always count on you for that.

Hippomenes did in fact settle into the green Portent skin.  This was an absolute non-surprise, since he pulled the same stunt that Loque did when he became Hip's new form.  After I hit 90, green Portent stopped stalking me and refused to spawn.  Then when I did get him, it was only after an eight hour camp.  Then of course he was green again the next time I saw him.  Sigh.  Between him and Eurydice, I will go crazy in MoP.  This is a fact.  At least Atalanta is happy.  She's kind of into the statue hubby, since she was born from a statue herself.

On the plus side, Calydonian will not have to go through Bristlespine in order to be himself.  After a short heartbreak (the porcupine who appeared to be him was not tameable when I first tried), Calydonian became himself again.  Not a moment too soon; I've been getting terribly used to him being white....and he's just....not.

Pan decided to stick with his original spawn on the Veiled Stair.  Not Stompy, not Welcome Goat - the little guy staring off over a cliff.  It's rather dreamy.  Rather un-Panlike.  Wouldn't be the first time one of my pets had a different personality than their namesake, though.

Pygmalion changed skins a while ago, after the old world basilisk skins won me over.  But it wasn't until this latest build that he felt right.  Deatheye, the rare spawn basilisk in Thousand Needles, suits him more than a common one.  After all, Pygmalion was the Large Loch Croc - he deserves a unique skin from a rare.  It's just...him.  It didn't hurt that Galatea returned briefly as Rockhide either.  If I had any sort of true bond with her, I'd be in trouble.

I only just now realized that Hip and Leo are next to each other on the grid.  That's utterly typical.  My pets are such trolls.  I share this as a warning to others - beware of trolling pets.

I think I'm pretty much done, short of Pan being there instead of Cadmus (I'm fond of Pan, but it's not the same).  Of course, I always say that....  But really, I think I'm more or less good this time.  Every buff is covered but kings and I just can't click with a shale spider.  Hope everyone else's stables are shaping up well!

Meet the Family: 4.2 Additions/Changes

Normally, I wouldn't do an update so soon after the last big family post, but these were big changes:

Atalanta became a full-fledged snow leopard after years of being a ghost saber.

Linus took his rightful place by my side.

Leo insisted on coming with me and he brought his good fortune with him.

Bowing out were Jason (who will return in another form) and Kalypso (who will likely not, but who will always remain Kalliope's crab).

Meet the Family: 4.2 Edition

It's been a long, long time since I last updated my stable chart, and for some reason, I've never actually run around and taken pics with Kalliope and all of her pets before.

This post is well overdue.

Kalliope's Family:

And without further ado...the family album!  Everyone is posed near/at their birthplaces.

Ursa

Atalanta

Hector

Jason

Psyche

Castor

Pollux

Perseus

Andromeda

Cassandra

Orpheus

Arachne

Tantalus

  

Icarus

  

Pandora

Theseus

Hippomenes

Cerberus

Ariadne

Scylla

Orion

Pygmalion

 
Kalypso

Kharon

Dante

<3

A tale of tarantulas

It all started with a scorpid.

It was during the Burning Crusade era of WoW.  We were limited to three pets and I only had two I was really settled on: Ursa and Atalanta.  I needed a pet for PvP.  Scorpids, with their stacking poison debuff, were all the rage.  I wasn't a huge fan of scorpids at the time (oh, how that has changed now...) and the only ones I had any real connection with were the pink ones in Tanaris.  Unfortunately, these were the bad old days before pet autoleveling, so I opted for one from Terokkar Forest.  I abandoned my black panther through a sea of tears, only to get ganked by two Horde before I could tame my scorpid of choice.  And thus my scorpid was born in a flood of blood.  I named him Orpheus, after the muse Calliope's son.  He was my walking around pet, since we were (and still are) on a PvP server.

Grateful as I was to have him by my side, things were slightly off, since I hadn't gotten to tame the scorpid I really wanted.  Plus, Orpheus was resentful of me for birthing him into a PINK skin.  So when patch 3.0 came out, I started shopping for a new look for him.  I squeezed him into Nuramoc's body, but the pink still outweighed the blue, and he was still very unhappy with me.  So Orpheus did not stay there for long, soon finding himself a new home in a blue crab from Darkshore.  Orpheus was considerably happier being blue, and rather enjoyed playing with pin.  I was happy he was happy and felt more at peace with the whole situation.  I thought this would be his final form.  I was wrong.

I was running hunter-priest in 2s with a friend of mine midway through LK.  He suggested that I get a spider for arena instead of a crab, since web was a ranged root and a non-channeled one at that.  Plus, it was what most hunters in arena were using, despite crab's worthiness and survivability.  I was rather against this idea.  Orpheus was happy and I didn't have room in my stable to tame a sixth pet (the other two were my then-wolf Cerberus and devilsaur Theseus).  Plus, I wasn't a huge fan of spiders.  But I thought about it and remembered that there was one spider in WoW who I felt some affinity with: Chatter, the named brown tarantula in Redridge.  He was always up when I was passing through the zone, so we'd established a familiar sort of bond.  After some consultation with Orpheus, we went over to Alther's Mill and he moved into Chatter's body.  The transformation was amazing!  Orpheus really liked being fuzzy and cuddly instead of having a hard carapace and sharp pointy things protruding from his body.  And thus, Orpheus had taken on his final form.  He would never change again, no matter what gameplay changes there would be in WoW.

Time passed.  Life was good.  But one day late in LK, I deleted a second huntress on the server, Kalli the blood elf.  As heart-wrenching as it was to lose her pets, I just wasn't playing her over there....and ultimately, I needed the space.  I was haunted by the ghost of Hippomenes out of all of her pets (somewhat ironically since he was a ghost in the first place).  He had been her best buddy and loyal companion, as well as being my dear Atalanta's long-distance mate.  I had to get him back, but there was only one pet who I could stand to part with until the expanded stables in Cataclysm: Orpheus.  It broke my heart to do so, but there was no one else I could give up.  Theseus was too hard to get, Ursa and Atalanta were my babies, and I needed Hector (Cerberus already had plans to return to his true form in Cata at that point) to raid.  Orpheus and I camped out in Grizzly Hills for hours upon hours, waiting for Hippomenes to come home again (for the first time, since Kalliope had never had him before).  Eventually, he did, and Orpheus took his leave.

Hippomenes had forgiven me!  I was grateful for that.  But I was still wracked by guilt, since I'd left Orpheus out there alone.  The worst part of it all was that Hippomenes didn't click with Kalliope the way he had with Kalli.  There's only one bear for Kalliope, and that's Ursa.  No exceptions.  I went back and forth with myself for days....weeks.  Tormented, I finally decided to take Hippomenes to Redridge with me and get Orpheus back.  I couldn't last until Cata without him.

Chatter was not there.

My brain rejected this.  It was impossible.  Chatter was ALWAYS up.  An hour passed.  Then two. Orpheus was mad at me.  That had to be why he wasn't there.  I groveled as I paced around Alter's Mill.  I begged his forgiveness.  The third hour passed.  Chatter still had not spawned.  I was frantic.  Orpheus was still furious.  I was losing my mind over a brown tarantula.  I was sitting amongst other brown tarantulas that looked exactly like Chatter.  But they were different.  He was different.  My friends thought I was crazy, even crazier than I'd been when I tamed Hector.  The fourth hour came.  NPCScan went off.  My heart leaped in relief as I targeted my baby and....couldn't find him.  OHMYGODWHEREWASHE?  I panicked, imagining a lowbie coming through the area and destroying him.  And suddenly, I thought to turn around toward the mill....and there he was, just wandering around casually.  The little bugger had snuck up behind me.  I had never seen him spawn there before.  I didn't know he COULD spawn there.  I wept as I let Hippomenes go and brought my baby, my right arm, my fuzzy spider home.  That was Orpheus's true birth.  I hadn't realized how much I truly loved him until that four hour camp in Redridge.  As exhausting as other camps I've done have been (including the eventual ten hour camp that brought Hippomenes home for real), this one was the most emotional camping and taming I've ever done.

The Cataclysm beta opened and Petopians crawled all over it, checking up on changes to existing pets.  I noticed Chatter was among the missing rares.  After what Orpheus, Chatter, and I had been through, I started to worry and asked beta testers to keep an eye out for him.  July gave way to August and September with no sign of him.  But in early October, there was a glimmer of hope.  Vephriel spotted a lone greater tarantula in southeastern Redridge.  He was the only brown tarantula left in the entire zone, so it seemed likely that this was Chatter, but with amnesia.  I accepted the possibility, but still hoped and prayed that Chatter would regain his memory.  November came.  Other previously missing rare spawns, like the strider clutchmother and Shadowclaw were found.  Chatter, however, remained missing, and the tarantula in Redridge stayed nameless.  I visited Chatter often on the live servers, unable to do anything to stop what was coming.  There was almost no time left in the beta....and then it was closed.  Nothing had changed.

The world shattered.  Chatter was gone.

I visited the little red tarantula often, /encouraging him to remember who he was.  It wasn't the same, but I stuck by the little guy.  He was a survivor, and my Orpheus was a survivor - it had to be Chatter.

Time passed and the 4.0.6 patch hit the PTR.  I started hunting for Chatter, but to no avail.  Instead, I came across Rekk'tilac, whom Veph had been dying to meet.  He was HUGE!  My brain could barely handle the possibility that Chatter might really be back - and bigger!  More and more rares popped up, but no Chatter.....until Kurasu found him!  And he was BIG!  Not Rekk'tilac-big, but big!  I couldn't stop smiling for days.  Chatter was really, truly home.

But....there was still that little tarantula in southeastern Redridge.  He wasn't Chatter, but he too survived the Cataclysm.  Veph and I puzzled over the little guy, wondering....  And then, a week after Chatter was found, Veph dubbed the little lost tarantula Chitter.  And it was right.  I immediately hopped on Babykalli (Kalli reborn as a baby blood elf!) and Veph flew me to Redridge on her touring rocket, whereupon Chitter was tamed.

Finally, things seemed to be in place.  But Noah, the Petopia lurker dev, had other plans.  Patch 4.1 hit the PTR and....Chitter was real.  He was now a rare spawn with his real name!  What was left of my brain melted as the little guy raced about the area, much like Orpheus is known to do.  I have plans to tame this little guy officially on my tauren huntress Yoninah to complete the family again with extra tarantula goodness.  I will have more brown tarantulas than I do black bears - and that was the only pet I ever had a duplicate pet of before.  That was the pet that got me into WoW in the first place.  That's saying something.

Between Orpheus, Chatter, and Chitter, my world has been forever changed for the better. <3

Patch day!

Patch 4.0.6 arrived on February 8th, bringing with it a variety of new pet looks and some changes to my own stables.

First and foremost, Hector's fur finally grew out as he and I were present for Dethecus's first Deathmaw spawn of the patch.  At last, he was the pup he was always meant to be!  And this truly was meant to be; he popped at the northwest spawn point, the same place I'd found him on the PTR.  I spent a great deal of time flying between there and Redridge, eagerly awaiting the first Chatter spawn as well, so Orpheus could visit.  It was a good omen; not long after Chatter appeared, so did Deathmaw. :)  I had a good time visiting Snarlflare as well - I've grown quite fond of him - and Seeker Aqualon's major size increase was a bit of a surprise (but a welcome one)!

Kalliope's only other stop for 4.0.6 was Azshara to go tame a beige chimaera to be the new Bellerophon.  So I flew up there and grabbed one who was flying around near the Evalcharr, who happened to be up.  I hung around to watch him fly for a bit, since he hadn't been up on the PTR, and I'd never seen him before in person - new look or old.  I couldn't stop watching him.  In my deepest subconscious, my being was pulsing TAMEHIMTAMEHIMTAMEHIM.  I protested; I wanted the beige chimaera.  TAMEHIMTAMEHIMTAMEHIM.  NO, I want the beige one!  TAMEHIMTAMEHIMTAMEHIM!  OKAY FINE.  I released the beige chimaera (sorry, little guy) and tamed the Evalcharr to shut up the voice in my head.  I named him Bellerophon and smirked smugly at my subconscious.  SEE?  NO CLICK.  I readied myself to tame a different beige chimaera for Bellerophon.  Except...I couldn't release him.  I'm pretty certain I facepalmed IRL at this point.  Fine, Bellerophon, you win.  You can be green.  At least you look really stunning with the sun coming through your wings...

Mind you, I love green.  It's my favorite color.  It's just that I never expected to be taken by this skin.  That green is gorgeous in person.  It doesn't photograph well.  It's warm and rich, not sickly.

Anyway, moving on....

It was Kallimon's turn!  My first stop was Azuremyst to pick up good ol' Death Ravager to be the new MintJulep.  And you know what?  I don't think I could have picked a better match.  Minty had been extremely picky about choosing a form; I'm so glad she worked her way into this one.  Kallimon and Minty look like reverse-twins.  This was destiny.

Remoulade, who was a brown scorpid from Durotar, had gotten the Madexx bug, so he changed himself into one of the lovely brown common models hanging out around north of the Obelisk of the Stars.  He's not the flashy type; he never wanted to be Madexx...he just liked his style. :)

The last stop for Kallimon was with Pacane in Un'goro.  After she'd come into her own as a green raptor, there was no doubt in my mind that she had to be the ravasaur matriarch to go with Beignet, who was also from the Crater.  It took a day or two, but she did eventually spawn and Pacane was finally home.  Amusingly, the white and black devilsaurs were especially attentive during this camping period, so it felt as though Beignet and Skorn were helping with the search.

Babykalli was my last hunter with a plan for this patch.  Eurydice, Creepthess, became Orpheus's long distance wife, across servers and factions.  This is not the first time Babykalli has done this for one of Kalliope's pets; when she was still Kalli and a blood elf on Dethecus, she had the original Hippomenes with her.

My last tame of the new patch was unexpected and unplanned.  I'd been greatly amused by Takk the Leaper's new incredible leaping abilities on the PTR.  After reading Toph's adventures in taming him and learning that Noah was behind this wonderful new addition to his abilities, I ran out there to tame him....only to not have to chase him at all.  How anticlimactic!  I named him after Noah, since he's done so much for us hunters in Cataclysm - above and beyond the call of duty.  Thank you, Noah!

And those are the long-delayed 4.0.6 tames!  There are others that I've done since then, but I'll hold off on those until after I complete the set...

Our destinies entwined

I didn't think I could possibly capture my bond with Ursa in words, but when the Which of your pets is most special to you? thread appeared, I realized that no matter what happens with me, him, or any other pets, Ursa and I are linked.  He brought me here and he brought me back when things were at their lowest and I had lost everything.

He is....mine.  As much a part of me as Kalliope is.

Our story is reproduced below.

**************

I have many pets who are special to me in different ways, but there is only one pet who will always be with Kalliope, the one who's been there since before she was born: Ursa.

I had resisted the pull of WoW back in vanilla. My bf at the time had a hunter and I was interested enough in his pets, but I was keeping my distance from the whole MMO thing. Time passed and BC came out. I got a better internet connection. I decided that it was time to give WoW a shot. He sent me to Petopia and it was there that I first saw him. Out of all the pets pictured, there was only one that I had any interest in: a black bear. I decided to name him Ursa, after a friend of mine from another game.

Since my options for a hunter were either a night elf or a dwarf (I didn't have BC yet), I opted for a night elf. For some reason, I'm just not into playing a dwarf hunter myself, though I love my dwarf characters of other classes now. My first name of choice (Atalanta) was taken, so I ended up with Kalliope after some trial and error. I learned the basics of WoW and that I would have to reach level 10 before I could tame my bear. I loved the taming quests and was a bit disappointed that we didn't get to keep those three pets. But it was time! I could go get my bear. Sadly, I had no clue where Dun Morogh was and my then-bf was less than inclined to take me there at level 10 so Ursa could be my first pet. Feeling naked without a pet, I tamed a gray owl, the closest I could get to white, and named her Hedwig. She was definitely a temporary tame, hence the easy Harry Potter reference. We quested down to Darkshore, where I happily released Hedwig for one of the brown thistle bears, who became a temporary Ursa. But it wasn't the real Ursa. Eventually, finally, somewhere between levels 13 and 16, we took the long trek across the Wetlands, which was very dangerous as a lowbie with no mount and on a PvP server. But then we got to Loch Modan....and there they were: black bears. I wish I knew which specific one I tamed; I was just so happy at the time to finally get the real Ursa.

Time went by, and both Ursa and I reached level 70. Life with him was good. However, my bf and I had grown apart and things ended. This was a sad thing, of course, but what made it worse was that he'd originally set up my account...and it was in his name. I contacted Blizzard to see if it could be changed, but it couldn't. So I was faced with a terrible choice: go on with his name and the past forever haunting me or start over from scratch. I chose the latter, but it was not easy.

I cried buckets at having to give up my pets, especially Ursa. I created a new account, this one completely mine, and went through all my characters one at a time, meticulously recreating them exactly as I had before, and in the same order, deleting each as I went to ensure that I would get to keep all my characters' names. I dove in quickly, leveling the new Kalliope with fervent passion so that I would be reunited with Ursa and Atalanta, my ghost saber. I planned ahead; I knew which of the black bears I would tame this time around. One of the most traumatic experiences for me on the original Kalli was doing the quest in the Wetlands that turns you and your pet into ghosts...and Ursa was turned into a female ghost. That was why I specifically chose a Grizzled Black Bear from eastern Loch Modan - I wanted to know my Ursa was male. (As it turned out, I have avoided that cursed ship ever since anyway, but it still influenced me at the time.) Surely I brought a temporary pet with me, but I cannot remember if it was Hedwig again or if it was temporary Ursa. He was the first one I saw as I headed south along the east side of the Loch. The joy at being reunited with Ursa was indescribable and the great pains I had taken in finding him forever changed how I viewed pet taming.

Ursa hasn't left my side since then. He may not always be my most active pet, but he's always there waiting for me. When it comes time to level to the next cap, he's the first pet to reach it with me. When I releveled to 70 the first time, it was a level 69 Ursa who came raiding with me. I named my Amani War Bear Ursa Major and my Dun Morogh Cub Ursa Minor after him. When going back into Karazhan in late BC, it was Ursa who off-tanked Moroes. Cataclysm has been good to Ursa; I actually bring him with me for Tol Barad dailies more regularly than I ever did in Northrend or on the isle, despite having tanking pets who are more practical for PvP. He's taken Kalliope's transformation into a human in stride. He knows it's me. After all, we've been apart before and he knows how to find me.

Ursa is my one pet, regardless of how much any of the others defines me. We share a different bond, a deeper one, one that others may not see or understand. But that's okay. We know it's there.

Stop taming me already!

Now I remember why I plan out Kalliope's stable so carefully.

Kallimon had a couple of stable slots left open before he'd have to start releasing pets to tame more.  I had decided at 83 that I would try out a shale spider on him for fun.  I was going to tame Amthea and see how things went. But as 83 approached, I realized that the orange shale spider was calling me....and not just any old shale spider, the little guy in the first cave who always gets killed.  He was alive when I went over there, thankfully, so I tamed him immediately.  Writing this reminds me that I'd previously seen an orc hunter do the same thing before and it made me greatly happy.  I settled on Doberge (dough-BASH) for his name, which was the name of Kallimon's first spider, who had been a gray tarantula.  The same thing happened with Kalliope's Arachne, a special green tarantula (the one near the satyr questgiver in Teldrassil) who later became Jadefang.  I am noticing a pattern here.  I am pretty sure he's staying this time.

While all this was going on, Ikutai tamed a silver nether ray and was pondering a name.  I suggested Flapjack, which was rejected.  Unfortunately, the moment I said it, I felt that urge.  No.  NO.  Flapjacks aren't Cajun or Creole.  NO.  Sighing in resignation, I checked: the term covers the southern US.  So I was off to Outland to tame a silver nether ray of my own.

I am going to be in massive trouble when Kallimon gets to 85 or if Beauty is made tamable....or hydras, for that matter.  I can feel my desire to tame Ghostcrawler fading away; I'll have to do it on the PTR sometime, just for the experience.  Ravigote seems to be sticking as a real crab.

Impulse tames are exhausting.

That darn cat...

I think the Basin has permanently warped my brain.

I've always felt a bit of a draw to Shango, what with all the circling and all, but the leopard saber skin never did anything for me.  (Except for you, Azzy. <3<3)  But then Cataclysm came and he had a stunning new tiger coat.

It was over for me then.  But I didn't know it yet.

After all, I had no room for said tiger.  Kalliope's stable is packed and I don't have "doubles" of pets on her.  Kallimon already had two cats, which was far more than enough.  I don't see myself leveling any more hunters that high either.

In a recent Petopian forum thread discussing Hawkbane, the missing white tiger from Terokkar, I suggested that he might return with a new skin, hopefully something wonderful like the dawnsaber skin.  I felt bad putting that out there, since there was no way I'd tame him for that skin myself, unless I tamed Shango too and made a pair of them on Kallimon, even though he doesn't have room.

Ah crud.

That was meant to be a joke, but there was the ring of truth in it.  Regardless of what will happen with Hawkbane, I knew that I had to have Shango.  On Kallimon.  Now.

So, meet Jalapeno, Jambalaya's relation in some capacity.

Friggin' cats.  They boss me around like no other....

My ravager is griefing me

While Hector is liable to wipe a raid by doing something dumb, Cassandra somehow manages to do it on purpose.  I can't tell if it's malicious or not, but it's definitely intentional.

The first time it happened, we were clearing Magmaw trash.  Somehow, when we were clearing the second pull, she went on Magmaw, wiping us.  There was no reason for her to attack him at all and I was pretty certain that I hadn't accidentally targetted him, though to be fair, in that room, it would be an easy thing to mess up.  I took the blame, since I assumed that I had somehow sent her in by accident.

However, today, there was a second offense.  We were clearing the early packs in Bastion of Twilight.  CC went up on one of the central packs.  Then somehow, the pack on the front right pulled too.  Cassie strikes again.  This time, I was certain I hadn't mistargetted.  It stands to reason that if I had sent her in on one of the NPCs in that pack, I would have gotten aggro myself and been punched in the face.  But that was not the case, as it had not been with Magmaw either.

Yep.  I'm definitely getting griefed. >_<

Puppy love

I will preface this by saying I am not a dog person.  By choice, I prefer cats.  I hold great affection for either if I fall for their personality, but by choice, cats get the advantage.

When I had to change out my dear cat Atalanta for a wolf in early Wrath, I was not very happy.  At was My Raiding Pet.  Period.  I didn't really want a wolf.  But I had fallen for the vargul blighthounds before Wrath had even come out, so this was a great excuse to tame one.  (The dog family, of course, did not yet exist at the time, so they were wolves.)  This was back in the days of five stable slots, so I morphed my old corehound Cerberus into a wolf.

The new Cerberus made it all the way into ICC.  There were three, then four hunters in our 25m, each with different wolves.  I had the only blighthound; there was also a Northrend worg and a ghost wolf.  I don't remember what wolf the fourth hunter had originally (I want to say a coyote of some sort, but I don't remember), but he ended up changing it to a blighthound.  This was bothersome.  Cerberus no longer stood out. It also made things difficult on the Princes fight.  The worst part was that I finally realized on some level that Cerberus wasn't suited to that model, despite still being a hellhound.  But it wasn't him, as this other wolf was making so obvious.  Little things that had always bothered me, like the lack of a jump animation, became bigger and bigger issues.  I finally realized and acknowledged that he wasn't Cerberus.  Not the real one.  I had no true affection for this dog.  I missed my big cuddly corepuppy.

With that settled, I was left with the trouble of finding a new wolf and a new name.  I had tamed Snarler on Babykalli before, my favorite of the coyote skins, but I knew that the constant movement from the pups drove me up the wall.  I didn't like the Northrend worgs at all - and besides, they were everywhere on Dethecus.  I hadn't been much of a fan of the regular worg model in the past, but faced with these choices, I gave them another look.  I remembered the lighter worg pup color, the dark brown, and decided that this was the one for me.  But when I checked Petopia, I learned that it wasn't available in the game.  I settled on Old Cliff Jumper's rich gray skin as my second choice.  I committed myself to a 13 hour camp after the servers came back up that very Tuesday and Hector came into my life.

Hector was the first worg I had ever liked.  I got used to the constant head-tossing.  It was such a relief to actually feel affection for him, certainly more than I'd had for Cerberus in the wrong form.  He was a good-looking puppy, but he didn't really show much of his personality for a long time, so while I did genuinely like him, I didn't love him.

That changed on a four-man SSC run.  Hector chose to path around the long way and pulled adds.  My bf and friends said he was dumb.  I defended him; it wasn't his fault pet pathing is stupid.  I didn't think anything of it until we approached Lady Vashj.  There's a puddle of water before the stairs leading up to her.  Hector decided to run around it instead of following me through it.  I started to wonder if the guys had a point.  Quickly swapping to Atalanta to check her pathing, it seemed that she ran around as well, even though I didn't remember her doing that back at 70.  The thing is....it was different.  As a cat, of course she would run around the water by choice.  Hector had no such qualms about getting wet.  Much as I didn't want to admit it, Hector was a little on the dumb side.  I stayed in denial, but Hector pulled some silly tricks in actual raids, involving pulling things he shouldn't and such.  Some of it was my fault, but enough of it was him that the phrase "Hectoring the raid" came to pass.

The Cataclysm hit.  I wasn't sure who I was going to raid with; it all depended on raid composition.  As it turned out, Cassandra won the buff race, but on fights where our bear tank went owl to dps, Hector got called out.  I was relieved on some level.  I would have been happy with any of my pets, but I'd raided more with Hector than with Atalanta at this point, so I would have missed him at my side.  They both still travel with me for raids, but Atalanta knows she's unlikely to be called on with both a death knight and a shaman in our group.

With patch 4.0.6 on the horizon, I faced an unexpected crisis: Deathmaw was to receive the dark brown skin that I had always wanted for Hector.  I had never been able to associate Hector with the noble Old Cliff Jumper, despite no other pet having that appearance, so this didn't seem like a big deal.  The only problem was that I was used to him being dark gray.  I had to sit with Hector on live and the possible new Hector on the PTR, tabbing back and forth between the two for a long time.  Ultimately, I knew it wasn't my call; it was Hector's.  I was prepared to go with whatever Hector chose.  If he didn't feel at home in the new fur, then I was going to stick with the gray.  Inexplicably, during one of my glances at the PTR window, I saw him.  The dark brown worg before me was no longer soulless; Hector had given his blessing and moved into the new fur.  It was definitely one of the strangest experiences I'd ever had with any of my pets.  Never before had I so clearly seen a pet's soul jump between skins.  Of course, it wasn't a complete jump, since Hector hasn't grown into the new fur yet, which only enhanced the uniqueness of the experience.  It is him, though.  I can feel it.  Hopefully, growing older will make him a bit wiser, but I'm not holding my breath.

The really crazy twist on all of this came in the next PTR build.  Despite having Hector's blessing on the new fur, I was concerned about OCJ being missing.  What if Hector decided he only wanted to be dark gray after all?  Things just weren't sitting right with me.  So when the next PTR build came up, I went looking for OCJ - and I found him!  He was at Featherbeard's Hovel, eating out of the boxes outside the hovel.  Well, at least he had survival skills.  It wasn't until later that he somehow ended up on the porch of the hovel, nibbling on the house.  I couldn't believe it.  OCJ had turned out to be as silly as Hector.  For the first time ever, I saw how they could be related.  Hector really was OCJ at his core.  I worried that this meant that Hector wouldn't be at home in Deathmaw's skin.  But running around with him on the PTR, I could tell he was still there.  He'll always have OCJ in his heart, but he himself was meant to be dark brown.

If I could only keep five pets, Hector would make the short list.  It shocked me to realize that.  That wolf exhausts the hell out of me, but I really do love him.  He's come a long way. :)

Meet the family

There's not much sense in having a blog about pets without actually introducing mine!

Kalliope's Family:

(Thank you, Veph, as always, for the grid template!)

I'll get my alt hunters' stables up sometime in the future, but they're still rather unfinished at this point in time.