Pet

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Pets are animals that will follow you around. They can sometimes be picked up. Wearable pets work differently.

Types of pets

Most pets are bought in pet shops, but some are acquired in other ways.

Mrs Puddlesocks' pet shop

This shop is on on King's Way in Ankh-Morpork. You specify the name when you order, and can order male or female pets of the following types:

  • cat (Witches will find they get a special version, rather than the tabby...)
  • chicken
  • dog
  • duck
  • rabbit
  • owl
  • hawk
  • sheep
  • frog
  • raven

You can "pluck" feathers from ducks and chickens.

The raven can be asked to 'sit', 'stand' or 'fly'.

Swamp Dragons

The Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons on Morphic Street in Ankh-Morpork sells swamp dragons. Unlike other pets, these don't necessarily appear in the owner's room upon login (possibly if they've been told to stay somewhere). They can, however, be scried - a crystal ball is a good investment.

If attacked, they will explode, dealing a lot of damage[1] and leaving a crater. It's possible that players and NPCs in the room will dive out of the way and avoid damage.

Upkeep

Swamp dragons need moment-to-moment upkeep and are not for the faint-hearted. Many are the dragon owners who have complained that their dragon "exploded for no reason" - questioning typically reveals that the dragon was neglected and died of loneliness.

It is imperative to show constant affection to your dragon. And constant means constant. Something as simple as a hotkey with "hug <dragon name>" on it can save both your fingers and your dragon's life.

Dragons respond to their owner's activity. If you are running around killing things and chatting and score-briefing and doing missions, your dragon will probably stay more or less okay. If you go AFK, even for five or ten minutes, you can expect your dragon to need some attention when you return.

A dragon that is looking nervous or stumbling needs a hug. Take a moment to hug it a few times. A happy dragon will blow playful puffs of fire and fly in the air. A rumbling dragon is in danger of death. Take some time out to pamper them with hugs and kisses.

If you leave your dragon unattended, don't expect to find it there when you come back - it will wander off to find you.

NOTE: If this all sounds like too much work to you, you're not alone! There are signs that the system is not designed with the expectation that people would keep (the same) swamp dragon on the long term.

On that topic, one Rosie from the Sunshine Sanctuary reportedly mentioned that slaving away (or more accurately paying other people to slave away) to take care of your swamp dragon every hour of the day and night is quite proper and it is the least one should expect of any self-respecting (i.e. rich) swamp dragon owner. Unfortunately, at this time there are no known public dragon sitters available to take care of your swamp dragon for you while you go adventuring across the Disc. It would probably cost someone an arm and a leg too.

Feeding

The main thing everyone knows about swamp dragons is that they need regular feeding with small chunks of coal. This is not really true. If you need a dragon to blow a particularly hot flame for some purpose - and there are several - then you need to feed it.

Otherwise souling the dragon should keep it happy. Feeding swamp dragons *does not improve their mood* - you need to soul them to do that. Underscoring this: if you are attentive to your dragon's emotional needs, you do not need to carry coal for them.

Hiccuping is the traditional sign that a dragon needs feeding. But souling three or four times will usually bring the dragon back to its (hopefully) perky self.

Summary

Pay attention to your swamp dragon! They are the neediest pets on the Disc, but oh so cute.

Rats

There is a rat shop on Lobbin Clout in Ankh-Morpork. Rats can be ordered here with the desired coat colour and type, eye colour, and name. Names can't be changed later.

Pet rats can also be asked to ride, giving you a line in your description:

She has a beady-eyed <colour> rat peering out from behind her head.

When you're tired of this, they can be asked to walk.

Rats will scurry into your arms, appearing in your inventory, if they see a dwarf, cat, or dog (including any of your pet cats/dogs). This no longer happens if they are riding on your shoulder (they just give out appropriate chats).

Sto Lat pets

A fresh and airy pet shop on Hill Street in Sto Lat sells fairly expensive cats and dogs. Pets bought here can be named after you buy them, and renamed with the "name" command.

You can buy:

  • Dogs
    • beagle
    • bloodhound
    • cabbage hound
    • collie
    • foxhound
    • greyhound
    • kelpie
    • poodle
    • Ramtop wolfhound
    • retriever
    • saluki
    • spaniel
    • sooty deerhounds
    • terrier
  • Cats
    • angora cat
    • archangel cat
    • curly-haired cat
    • fox cat
    • hergen cat
    • leopard cat
    • ragdoll cat
    • tsortean cat

To see the documented colours for each breed, see the Fresh and airy petshop breeds and colours page.

The shop owner will not always sell you a pet, however:

Peter Periwinkle says with a Sto Plains accent: I can't in good conscience let you take her when you've got so many pets already. What are you thinking? This is a pedigree, full-blooded tsortean cat we've got here, not some menagerie canary.

There seems to be a set limit that the shop owner won't sell to you if you already have three pets, whether they were purchased from this shop or elsewhere, and dead pets count towards this limit. However, you can get around this by temporarily transferring ownership of your pets to a trusted friend while acquiring a new pet.

Behavior

These pets can be "ask"ed to do things; "syntax ask" will give you a list.

Cats bought here will occasionally disappear on their own errands (they seem to appear next to another player when they do this). They'll also attack small birds and rodents.

The wolfhounds (and deerhounds) are protective of their owners, and may join in fights or may just watch and use aggressive souls  research If this has been marked on a page, it's because there was something that probably isn't known, that the person who edited the page thinks could be found out. Perhaps you could figure this thing out, and be famous evermore. . A wolfhound or deerhound might join a fight immediately or wait many rounds before joining the fight.

Wolfhounds will attack wild boars and some wolves on sight. Note that "wolves" attacked on sight includes Captain Angua (possibly any werewolves). Having them wear a collar and leash seems to prevent them from doing this.

The aristocratic Ramtop wolfhound lets out a ferocious bellow and throws himself to the end of his leash, straining to get at the grey wolf.

Wolfhounds don't seem particularly interested in grass wolves and seem to treat them as any other NPC.

Wolfhounds may, on rare occasion, start fighting other wolfhounds as well as kelpies. Other Sto Lat dogs may behave similarly.

Kelpies may sometimes attack humans.

Large poodles, wolfhounds and fox terriers (all dogs?) may attack and kill cats that soul aggressively at them, which the stray ones in Ankh-Morpork do. The leash doesn't help with this.

Fox terriers will sometimes attack rats and kill them. They will also attack the Gufnork totems if they are summoned by their owner.

Sto Lat pets may start fighting you if involved in a Mended Drum bar brawl. You can ask them to stay and walk away from the fight.

Grooming

Dogs' fur will become disordered and acquire burrs with time. You can get rid of the burrs and make their fur smooth by brushing or grooming them with a pet brush (this requires a little bit of skill in crafts.husbandry.animal.grooming). You can do the opposite--make their fur more disordered and introduce burrs--by using the "ruffle" soul on them.

After being brushed, poodles can also have their coats cut into different shapes; the shop sells clippers as well as a book showing different styles. This requires skill crafts.arts.sculpture (a bonus of around 146 is enough for an easy clip). The syntax to clip them is:

clip <pet> into {ankhian saddle|jacket and pants|genuan|lion|bell bottom|teddy bear} [clip] with <object> 

Afterwards, they look something like this:

A tall, elegantly shaped dog with a proud gait and rather aloof dark eyes, this creature is nothing like his smaller, yappy cousins.  His grey coat has been clipped into a professional lion cut, with a proud mane covering his neck and shoulders, and round pom-poms on his tail and ankles.  The clip looks very recent, as the hair has not yet begun to grow back.
He is in good shape.
He is sitting.
His fur is brushed into a perfect display of ordered curls.

However, the exact appearance depends on the style chosen and how long it's been since you styled them--the line after the style description changes with time as the style grows out (the time it takes for it to grow out varies somewhat, but styles last several hours):

  • The clip looks very recent, as the hair has not yet begun to grow back.
  • His fur is just starting to grow back.
  • His clippings are getting fuzzy around the edges.
  • His haircut is almost lost under the surge of new growth.
  • His grey fur has been allowed to grow out unclipped. (Style has disappeared entirely.)

A failed clip:

Someone has made a horribly botched attempt at clipping this poor beast's grey fur.  Better hope it grows out soon.

A failed clip doesn't go through all the stages, and will just disappear entirely after several hours.

After the clip grows out a little bit (which takes a varying amount of time--it could be twenty minutes or it could take an hour or two) you can clip again. This is true whether or not the description says it's grown out, and whether or not you botched the clip.

They can also be dyed different colours, with dye being sold for &&&&&&&&&&+10000 A$25 for a single-use tub. They need to be wet for it to work, and the syntax is "dye <living> with <object>". This appears to require some skill  research If this has been marked on a page, it's because there was something that probably isn't known, that the person who edited the page thinks could be found out. Perhaps you could figure this thing out, and be famous evermore. , as it's possible to fail and simply waste the dye:

You try to dye the woolly grey poodle, but just end up getting sky blue dye everywhere.

Trainable pets

Lacerouse' pet shop on Sapphire Street and Trade Street in Genua sells trainable pets. You specify the name when you order, and can order male or female pets of the following types:

  • alligator
  • dog
  • monkey
  • mynah bird

The shop's helpfile explains how training works.

  • Some of the pets tend to be harder to train than the others.
  • All have a tendency to aggressively soul at anything nearby if they're poorly trained.
  • rename <pet> as <string> will let you rename your trainable pet.
  • The commands you can teach the pets are: stand, sic, attack, stay, fetch, roll, smile, kiss, up, shake, speak, say
  • Monkeys can also be taught the command 'equip'.

The alligator swims well and breathes underwater.

Moon dragons

Dragons that come from the Moon, not to be confused with swamp dragons.

Getting one

Moon dragons cannot be bought. To get one, you need to go to the Morpork Mountains (near Nowhere) or the Carrack Mountains (near Bleak Prospect) and wander the terrain until you spot one you like. It is likely that they can be found in any hilly mountain range.

Then, you need to groom it with a brush[2] and then give mushrooms to it, which can be gathered in the terrain. You may also use souls such as serenade dragon, sing dragon, whistle dragon, hum dragon, etc, or pet dragon to help this along.

Unlike pets bought in shops, you can only have one moon dragon at a time, as they will attack each other.

Once it accepts you as its person, your moon dragon can be named.

Commands

Moon dragons respond to some verbal commands:

  • stay
  • follow, down, come
  • sit
  • perch, ride
  • sing

Uniquely, moon dragons can be asked to remember here [as home], and can afterwards be asked to go home. You can change their "home" with the same syntax.

>ask dragon to remember here
The red moon dragon soars down to the ground.
The red moon dragon stands up.
You ask the red moon dragon to remember this place as home.
The red moon dragon pads around the place, inspecting everything carefully.
The red moon dragon curls up at your feet with a satisfied expression.

Also uniquely, if left somewhere they will eventually fly back to you.

You can ask your dragon to ride or perch, or beckon the dragon, which adds a line to your description:

An indigo moon dragon is perched on her shoulder.

When riding, unlike when they're in your inventory, they do not add to your burden. Moon dragons may have different chats, depending on whether they're perched on you or standing in the room.

Combat

When your dragon is with you and someone tries to attack it, it will flutter onto your shoulder before it can be harmed. If you're dead and your dragon is threatened, it will jump into your ectoplasmic body and spit at its aggressor from its safe spot. If it's not in the same room as you, it will fly to you.

Even though they can't really be injured when they can perch on you, when an npc is trying to attack one, that npc will still still "count" as fighting the moon dragon. You will therefore get reduced kill and burial xp from aggressive npcs that try to attack your moon dragon. It also seems that you use AP when someone attacks your moon dragon perched on you.

Death

  • If you attack your moon dragon (or fail to steal from it, or other means of engaging combat).
  • If you are in hiding when someone tries to attack it while it's not perched on you your dragon will flee when it realizes it can't find you, but the opponent usually attacks once before it does so, possibly resulting in its death.
  • Catapult in Sto Lat
  • Brawling at the Hatchet and Entrail pub in Ankh-Morpork.
  • The Alchemists Guild apparatus gives a loud bang when a quintuplet is correctly entered. This will shock and confuse onlookers, including a perched moon dragon. When the guild is going to blow up 'normally' and you run away just before that your pet may fail to follow you and be caught in the explosion and die.
  • If you have more than one moon dragon, or a moon dragon and swamp dragon, they will fight to the death (of one of them) when they enter the same room. Since they periodically fly back to you, this is just a matter of time.
  • If you take your moon dragon to visit Shelox, it can die.

Colours

See the Moon dragon colours page for the various documented colours.

Tabby cats

An "<adjective> tabby cat" is a quest reward. These come with a name (which you can see with "detail my pets", or by buying it a collar at Mrs Puddlesocks' pet shop).

These respond to verbal commands:

  • "Stay"
  • "Follow me"
  • "Sit"
  • "Lie"
  • "Stand"

It seems they can only understand Morporkian.

Note that while these follow, they don't follow into passage rooms[3]. You can pick them up and drop them in the passage room; they will follow you out of passage rooms.

The fishermen in the Ankh-Morpork dock appear to dislike tabby cats, and will try to kill them.

Slippery Hollow Farm Animal Stall

Finally, Slippery Hollow features some fairly unique pets that all have unique features to them. None of them can be picked up. They can be named using the name command and asked to stay or follow.

Sometimes the shop sells young animals, these eventually lose the young modifier although it seems to come back again sometimes. There are also various modifiers that may appear such as a proud young goose or a young plump truffle pig.

  • The truffle pig can be "encouraged" to look for truffles with encourage pig to dig for truffles. This uses crafts.hunting.foraging (confirmed with a TM).
  • The backward walking sheep can be sheared with the pair of sheep shears also sold by the vendor of the stall, producing a fleece.
  • Feathers can also be plucked from chickens.
  • The goose can be scared with the boo soul being directed at it, producing a goose egg that can be eaten.

Pet behaviors

All or most pets will occasionally perform souls or remotes, although non-wearable pets only do this when they're not being carried. Some will also respond if you do certain souls at them, like pet or scratch. Having them wear a collar and leash will stop them from doing souls.

Pets may react if you throw a pet ball for them:

throw <object> for <pet>                   
throw <object> to [the] <direction> for <pet> 

These can be bought in the Sto Lat pet shop, and unlike most objects, they can be given to pets to carry.

Keeping track of pets

Your pets will appear in the room with you whenever you log on (if you were carrying them when you logged off, they may appear in your arms). You can use "detail my pets" to get a list of your pets and whether they're alive.

They will automatically follow you, unless you've told them to stay, but they may be kept out of restricted areas (such as priest/follower rooms, guarded areas, or vaults) if they're following you and not being carried. Moon dragons and Sto Lat dogs can follow more closely, though, and will appear in the room anyway.

If unheld swamp dragons are seen by npcs within the Ankh Morpork Assassins' Guild, they will be moved to the gate, and those seen by npcs beyond the metal door in the Thieves' Guild will be moved outside to the Street of Alchemists. Note that any branch of the Thieves' Guild is liable to move your swamp dragon to the Street of Alchemists - if the Bes Pelargic guild see one, they will take a moment's journey to Ankh-Morpork to drop your dragon there.

Keeping pets safe

Some otherwise non-aggressive npcs will attack pets. These include (but may not be limited to):

  • Kess of Sek, who will pursue and then attack cats. She will also attack (but not pursue) an owner who picks the cat up.
  • Hunters in the Sto Plains, who will attack cats, ducks and probably most other pets.
  • Fishermen in the Ankh-Morpork docks
  • Ninjas in Bes Pelargic will attack Sto Lat dogs, ravens, alligators, swamp dragons and possibly others
  • Cats (who can hide) at the Chronides Farmstead will attack mynah birds, ravens and possibly rats.
  • Many dogs in Sto Lat will attack cats and eat their corpse, taking whatever was on the cat with them.
  • Dogs in general sometimes attack ravens (seen in Ankh-Morpork and Chronides Farmstead)

If you're going to be around these NPCs, it's best to either leave your pet somewhere safe or carry them.

Dog armour

A chainmail haubark that can be worn by dogs can be purchased from the Temple of Chefet in Ephebe for &&&&&&&&&&+26400 2M S37|48de.

This chainmail haubark is very much like a hauberk, but for dogs.  Rather than being one large piece, it is divided up into several smaller pieces that connect together with strong dome fasteners.  It looks like it would provide quite good protection, although, like a real hauberk, the head is left uncovered.
You could fasten it to a faithful canine companion to provide it with a little extra protection, or just to make it look adorable in a shiny set of armour.
The chainmail haubark is good at stopping sharp attacks.
The chainmail haubark is ok at stopping blunt attacks.
The chainmail haubark is average at stopping pierce attacks.
The chainmail haubark protects your legs, back, chest, abdomen and arms.
The chainmail haubark weighs 10lb.

Losing pets

Sometimes you don't want a pet around anymore, or something happens to take it away.

Death

If your pet dies, the ritual Raise Dead Pet will bring them back to life. It is performed on the bereaved owner of the pet, so the corpse is not necessary. You will have to pick up any items that you want to keep though.

Killing pets and haunting

If you kill a pet that is available from Ms Puddlesock's, that pet will haunt you. This may possibly happen with swamp dragons as well. It does not happen with the Sto Lat or Genua pets nor with moon dragons. The killing has the following effects:

  • You will see terrible visions of the pet, causing you to wimpy out of the room every twenty seconds.
  • Your maximum social points get knocked down to 1. After a few minutes they increase to 2, and doing things that use social points (souling, telling) seems to increase your maximum as well, for some reason.

The haunting lasts about fourteen minutes, although the message you get implies that you can stop it with the Raise Dead Pet ritual. This is not true, though -- you will continue to be haunted even if you do raise your pet before the fourteen minutes is up.

Note that this doesn't happen if someone or something else kills your pet.

An example of what haunting looks like.

Note that if you consign your pet and then kill it, Raise Dead Pet won't be able to bring the pet back.

Consigning pets

If you no longer want your pet but do not want to kill it, you can consign it to history. Consign allows you to release your pets so that they no longer follow you around or think you are their owner. You can consign them individually or all at once.

consign pet named <string> <number> to history
consign pet named <string> to history       
consign all [my] pets to history            

Transferring Pets / Pet Adoption

Instead of killing or abandoning your pet, why not transfer it to another player?

transfer ownership of <pet> to <player>      

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. Enough to kill someone with only 2293 hitpoints, anyway.
  2. This appears to take crafts.husbandry.animal.grooming -- a bonus of 129 seems more than enough. It's possible it uses crafts.husbandry.animal.breeding, but if so only a very low bonus (50) is required.
  3. Anymore.