I shopped smart

I shopped pet smart. Although I like the achievements I haven't been particularly obsessive about getting any of them. I work on them when I feel like it generally. With the exception of the 50 mini pet achievement that is. I have always loved the little pets in game and was always sad that as a hunter with the bag space problems this brings I never had any room for them. With the changes as of patch 3.0 I immediately started collecting the little cuties.

It was fun soloing my way into Black Rock Depths for the Smolderweb Hatchling (who looks like a little brother to my spider Smithers!) and the Worg Pup and it was also fun researching where to get different pets via Breanni's awesome website and creating my own list of all the pets I possess.

I was sitting on 48 pets thanks to the Winter Veil gifts and the generosity *cough* of my druid and death knight alts when Seelyon a fellow guildie who knew I was working on the achievement was incredibly generous and mailed me a Cobra Hatchling from the Oracle dailies which he could easily have sold on the AH. This gift prompted me to finally go and pick up the Ancona Chicken in Shimmering Flats which was the last easily attainable pet on my list to bring me up to 50. Hooray! Stinker, I has him, and for a skunk he is super cute!

Levelling fishing WAS worth it

When I was a young hunter first setting off on my adventures in Azeroth I picked up the tradeskill fishing. It seemed reasonable to me that as a hunter I would need some way to feed my faithful companion. Azrael was my first loyal kitty who I tamed in the wilds of Darkshore. I fondly remember many the time I spent fishing with Azrael looking on interestedly beside me as I caught her supper. Sadly Azrael was eventually released back into the wild due to the lack of space of the parsimonious stable masters I encountered.

I eventually decided that the opportunity cost of fishing didn't compare favourably to the cost of picking up some hunks of meat from a friendly (for a dwarf!) meat vendor in Ironforge and my fishing skill waned.

Until that is, I realised the value of being able to cook up fish into tasty stat-boosting meals for myself and my friends. So now I find myself with 375 fishing and cooking and have made some contacts in Shattrath and at the local lake who are happy to pay me for my ability to snare rare fish and concoct unusual meals.

One reward I recently received was the fish finding ability which makes fishing even easier than before. I'd done a little reading up in the past on fishing tips and tricks from master angler El over at El's Extreme Anglin and the other night feeling at a little bit of a loose end I headed over to refresh my memory. Apart from hooking Lurker in SSC what else would fishing do for me? Ah yes, there was the opportunity to snag myself a rare non-combat pet if I had the patience.

If one has the ability to reach the high altitude lakes of Terrokar and can find schools of Highland Mixed Fish one might just be lucky enough to snag Mr Pinchy. Was I feeling lucky punk? Well yes, I was and also not really up for anything more than some relaxing fishing with perhaps a few ales.

I grabbed my special hooks and jumping on my birdie flew out to Blackwind Lake near Skettis to try my luck. With fish finding activated I was quickly able to identify the schools and fished away happily. After clearing out all of the schools at Blackwind I hopped over to Lake Ere'Noru which is a great spot just above Allerian Stronghold with no pesky mobs to interrupt you. I located 3 schools there and on the the third I fished not one but TWO Mr Pinchys. Wooohooo!

My first attempt at catching him and I was doubly successful. I'd also snagged 25 furious crawdad which was going to make our MT very happy when I mailed him some tasty Spicy Crawdad.

So I trundled back to Shattrath gleefully exclaiming my luck over guild chat. Once I'd completed my cooking and both mailed off some tasty food plus deposited some in the guild bank 'fridge' I figured it was time to try my luck with Mr Pinchy. I was a little nervous as my wish could be good... or bad.

/gulp

Fingers crossed I clickety-clicked and BAM Magical Crawdad pet! Huzzah! My luck couldn't get any better! I know there are people out there who have spent weeks trying to score a Mr Pinchy pet and I got one on my first shot! Needless to say I have my magical crawdad companion by my side constantly right now. Having such luck has fired me up to try and get some of the other rarer non-combat pets and I've found the handy Warcraft Small Pets site to inform me. I've already got a fair selection of the vendor purchasable ones I must admit.

I remember seeing someone with the panda pet when I first started playing and would love one but I think that's pretty firmly out of the question.

/sad panda

Still the Azure Whelpling one of the crocolisk pets from the daily fishing quest and Mojo the frog from ZA look pretty appealing to me. Nothing like adding a few more game goals to the list.

/grin