When WoW came out, I loved that I could tame a pet to help me. There was no question in my head that my main pet was going to be one of the cats within Azeroth. As soon as I could, I immediately went out and tamed the first in a long line of different kitties. In my running around on the internet to get more information on being a hunter, I ran across a picture of a cat that made me drool. It was perfect for me. Sleek, icy, perfect, TEAL! Then I saw how hard it was for an Alliance member to get it: either find the rare spawn version, or find a friendly Horde and get them to spawn the quest mob and get it tamed before dying. I whimpered, but made it a mission to get the teal cat.

Months went by and I leveled Siana up to 60, worked on gearing her and always kept an eye towards making time to just go sit in Winterspring and wait to tame the rare spawn teal cat. I didn’t know any Horde players and figured that me taming the teal cat would never happen that way. Another friend, Aerye, also lusted after the teal cat and spent hours in Winterspring, waiting for the rare spawn and waving at the occasional Horde that wandered past her. (Ah the pleasures of a PvE server.) We both had close encounters to getting the cat tamed, but something always happened. Someone would have just tamed it or just killed it. Frustrating, but such is life. Then Aerye, through the cooperation of a very friendly Horde and a lot of sign language, managed to tame the teal quest tiger. That was one tiger down, one to go. I still wanted mine.

I hit a vacation time where I was going to take a week off and not go anywhere. I was just going to relax at home, play some WoW and not worry about anything. One afternoon, I logged into WoW and grouped up with The Boyfriend and another friend of ours for some instance action. Right as we were really getting going, Aerye started frantically sending me tells, telling me to leave the group and get to Winterspring NOW! Word got to The Boyfriend and the rest of the group that I had a shot at the teal cat. I think if they could have, they would have carried me there themselves. I gave frantic apologies to the group, and got cheers and well wishes in return as I fled to Winterspring. Aerye invited me to group, practically overloaded with excitement, and kept saying “Hurry! Hurry!”

I finally arrived in Winterspring, after what seemed like the longest ever trip in the universe. Racing towards Aerye’s dot on the map I found her, her teal cat, and… a Tauren?! They were busy doing the sign language thing back and forth, and as I raced up, Aerye cheered at me, pointed at me, pointed at the Tauren, pointed at her cat, and /begged. He nodded, Aerye and I raced about setting up traps, and he did the summon. Shy-Rotam spawned, hit Aerye’s trap, I hit my Tame Beast command and the race was on.

By the second Tame charge started, we got an add on us, which then seemed to summon more adds. The Tauren was racing around trying to pull them off us, while Aerye was trying to protect me while I kept trying to tame and cycle in my own trap to freeze her. Fears hit, everyone scattered, and we all died. Aerye and I frantically raced back to our bodies, rezzed, the Tauren came back, raced off to get more meat, then came back and summoned again.

Three hunters, two pets, a lot of traps, a lot of swearing, and then it happened. I tamed the teal cat. I tamed Shy-Rotam. To say that I was ecstatic is a slight understatement. I admit it. I’m a geek girl. In the space of 30 seconds from seeing that “beast tamed” light flash, I’d managed to scream myself hoarse, scare the hell out of the real cat sitting in the room with me and the computer, watch a whole guild go nuts cheering, and started shaking and crying. As far as I was concerned now, WoW was over. I could end my gaming on that one thing that I’d wanted the most in the game: the teal-skin cat. Aerye and I danced, celebrated, and flirted with the Tauren, who cheered, danced, and blushed at the two Night Elf Huntresses who were all but flinging themselves at him. Eventually, he went his way, and Aerye and I went off to celebrate my new pet by killing things with The Boyfriend and other guildies. Later that evening, I called up a some friends of mine, a husband and wife that I’d known from Real Life and had gamed with them for quite some time. I’d moved on from the game I’d been in with them when I’d joined WoW, but we still exchanged game updates and “what we did last night” tales. I got her on the phone and asked her if I could name my proud new pet, one she’d also known I’d wanted badly, after her usual character name. She yelped in joy that I got it then said she’d be proud to have my pet named for her. Oh yes, we are geek girls.

This all took place before The Burning Crusade expansion. Mobs have been nerfed, quests have been added, and this is a lot easier now. But nothing will ever really be like that initial euphoric feeling of taming my teal kitty. It’s one of those memories that reminds me why I love this game, and why I always hold a soft spot in my heart for Taurens.