my security guard is a lava-breathing puppy Tweet

I’m a collector. Some are “official,” organized collections (stamps, for instance), but many are de facto collections that occurred when I got one of something and discovered there were more of them, or just started gathering things without really organizing or exploring them in great detail (my coin collection falls into this category). I just like to group similar things together, I think. Naturally, I collect in World of Warcraft, too. One of my collections in WoW is of non-combat pets, which are small, often playful or cute animals that are sometimes modeled after larger, meaner ones. They follow you around but they can’t fight (unlike hunter pets, which can). Of the 126 non-combat pets that I can possibly acquire (there are more, but some are unobtainable for various reasons), I now have 84. You can see them on my Warcraftpets profile for Narila, my pet-collecting main character.

My latest acquisition is the Corehound Pup, a quasi-Cerberus-looking two-headed lava-breathing puppy modeled after the once-fearsome Corehounds that guard the Molten Core. Since MC is level 60 content and everyone who is anyone is now level 80, Corehounds aren’t quite so scary anymore. It’s an animated pet, so it plays with a bone or chases its tail while I’m standing around. I got it yesterday by attaching the Blizzard authenticator to my account, which I was happy to learn came in a handy and free iPhone app. Now, when I log in to World of Warcraft, in addition to my password I enter a randomly-generated code with a 20-second shelf life that I read off my phone. It makes the account harder to hack. Plus I got the Corehound Pup, so it’s a deal all around as far as I’m concerned.
 
Cute, isn’t he?