Pets with Special Behaviors
Most WoW pets, even those with unique looks, are pretty standard in their behavior. But some pets are just plain ... odd.
Barking Dogs
These two pretty pups know a neat trick: when you click on them they will bark for you! This works for any player, not just their owner , but only the person who clicked will hear the bark.
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Now Appearing -- in a Puff of Smoke!
Arikara, the spirit of Vengeance that sometimes terrorizes the Tauren of Thousand Needles, also knows an impressive trick: when you call him (via Call Pet or when you dismount), he appears in a puff of smoke! Everyone in the area, not just the hunter, can see the smoke and hear the accompanying deep rumble.
This wind serpent is summoned via a Horde quest, but can be tamed by Alliance once he's been summoned.
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Color Changers
At one time, there were a number of pets that would change color every time they were called. Apparently this behavior was unintended: Blizzard 'fixed' all of these pets before the launch of the Burning Crusade expansion. But then, perhaps unintentionally, they introduced another creature like this in the expansion, the Rip-Blade Ravager.
These ravagers occur in the wild in one of three colors: the one shown here, orange, and purple. The color you choose to tame doesn't seem to make a difference; once tamed, these ravagers will choose randomly among these colors each time they are called.
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Audible Yawns
All pet cats have a yawn animation that they will perform sometimes when they are idle. They put their front paws out in front and stick their behinds in the air, just like a house cat. It's very cute.
But only a handful of cats -- the ones who use a 'riding' model -- accompany this animation with a loud roar (followed by a quiet jowl-shaking noise). You can almost hear the slobber.
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And starting with patch 2.3, cats who use the lion model also roar when they stretch, although their roar is rather different.
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Ghostly Pets
The Ghost Saber is perhaps the best-known pet in World of Warcraft today. His transparent appearance makes him a perennial favorite. The picture below doesn't do him justice, but check out the Ghost Saber Gallery for some in-game shots.
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Another ghostly pet is the so-called ghost wolf, more properly known as the Grimtotem Spirit Guide. Unfortunately, this ghastly pet can no longer be tamed, although you may see him running around in game with hunters who nabbed him when he was available.
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Just Plain Weird
Finally, we have a couple of pets who have unusual qualities that, while noteworthy, aren't the sort of thing that you can show off to your guildmates.
Olm the Wise, a rare white owl from Felwood, is part of the Cenarion Circle faction. No one knows why, it doesn't persist through taming, and it doesn't seem to have any real effect -- but nevertheless, you'll need to 'go to war' with Cenarion Circle before you can tame him.
Going to war in this case just means going to your Reputation tab, selecting the Cenarion Circle reputation, and clicking the 'At War' checkbox. Remember to uncheck this box once Olm has been tamed. Neither taming Olm nor killing him seems to affect your Cenarion Circle faction in any way.
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At one time, the Drywallow Snapper was a crocolisk who knew more than he should. Crocolisks can learn to use the skill Bite, and many crocolisks know some rank of Bite when they are tamed. But the Drywallow Snapper was unique -- he knew the skill Claw 5 when he was tamed! He didn't get to keep his unique skill for very long, though, since he would lose it the first time you zoned or logged out, and he could never be taught any other ranks of the Claw skill.
Blizzard finally fixed this situation in Patch 2.4.2 when they removed Claw 5 from the Drywallow Snapper and gave him Bite 5 instead. But it still makes for a pretty neat trivia question.
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