Who doesn’t love pets? At one time or another I’ve had dogs, a cat, fish, hamsters and now our house has two lovely rabbits (or little buggers depending on what kind of mood they’re in). It’s another ‘national’ day that only seems to exist to promote something cheesy but hey why not go with the flow and celebrate having pets! What better way to do that then to look at some of the best pets in video games?
Dogmeat – Fallout (all of them)

Dogmeat is such a charming dog in all the Fallout games. If he’s not an important companion for the story helping you at low levels to survive the wastelands he can be found chilling in the Café of Broken Dreams. A good dog through and through, mans best friend. Well until he decides to run into combat your trying to avoid or get in the way of combat actions. There’s a reason Dogmeat is a Fallout staple for the main series and long may it continue!
Chao – Sonic Adventure 2

The perfect refinement of the Tamagochi. Play through Sonic Adventure 2 collecting little animal critters and gems then haul them all back to your garden to stuff the little alien blue creatures until they transform into new beings. All so you can pet them against your face and race them for items to further your gardens cause. The fact they have little playgroups, tricks and various other quirks just make them that much more adorable.
Bulbasaur – Pokemon Leaf Green

The greatest Pokemon there ever was. Why wouldn’t you want it as a pet? Sure the various evolution’s of Eevee are amazing and sure Snorlax will always be pretty high on the list of most loved Pokemon ever but why would you need any of that in your life when you have a part flower part dinosaur in your life? Technically it’s not much of a pet more a travelling companion but you can pet, clean and feed him in later entries so the classification stands.
Palicoes – Monster Hunter World

Borderline companion again but the cat-like creature you spend far too long creating in MHW along with your avatar is too super to not be mentioned. Your not just on a grand adventure to slay giants, explore vast areas and complete quests! Your also taking your perrsonification (yes I went there) with you! Now you can point out to the cat that’s currently trying to make a bed out of your legs and crotch that the cat on the TV is so much better behaved than them. Then the cat will just tilt its head and you’ll forget you were ever mad at it for another 10 seconds.
A Sim – The Sims 4

You make sure they bathe, eat, sleep and have enough going on in their lives to keep those little bars just in the green. Your sim in The Sims is most definitely your pet. The fact you can dive even deeper into the meta and make a pet for your Sim (a pet for your pet) is even more messed up when you think about it. Forever playing god with a creature that has only partial sentience and just a simple drive to eat and poo? That sounds like pet ownership for the most part.
‘Dog’ – Fable 2

The dog of legend. When you know that a pet becomes the main focus of a story you know fully well your going to be left with a really difficult choice at the end. Fable 2 is no exception to this and largely responsible for “the dog dies” mentality for any main pet character in any game. Even the most evil village murdering, magic wielding, treasure hording menace couldn’t resist that face and would end up choosing to save the most important life in the game.