Animal Companions

Disney movies are known for their animal companions. Even in stories where the female lead had no companion before, there often is one in the Disney version. They’re cute, they’re something for young children to enjoy, and they make for additional merchandise. Yet, animal companions are not just for Disney movies, there’s also quite some other reasons to add an animal to your story and give your main character a furry, feathered, or scaly friend.

A classic example of an animal companion are familiars — animals which are around a mage of any kind (although witches are the most common thought to have one) and have a deeper connection to them than your regular pet.
A familiar serves several purposes for the owner. Usually, they are magically bound to their mage, so they might have a higher-than-normal intelligence. They might be able to communicate with their mage as well, either directly, being able to speak in a human way, or telepathically. A familiar might have been given to the mage by a higher power (usually the devil) and serve as a connection to that power, too. That’s why Isadora has the Beast of Set for emergencies. Familiars often also bring their mage objects which the mage needs — catching small magical creatures, for instance, or finding rare herbs and suchlike.
Giving your magic user a familiar can be quite useful. They won’t be as alone as they might be otherwise, as they can hold a conversation — sneaky, reassuring, or something else — with the familiar. The familiar could help or hinder them with a task they’re doing, could get them into or out of trouble.

It’s also quite common for children to have an animal companion. Animals are good for children and their emotional and social development and in many stories, they serve as helpers or protectors as well.
It is one thing to let your young child run around alone, but if they have a quirky dog by their side, you might be less worried, especially in a rural setting. For children, a dog or cat or bird can also be a close friend and confidante — someone they can tell their worries to without being told off, someone to share secrets with they can’t tell anyone else about. They can be caretaker (to a degree), friend, protector, playmate. In practical ways, an animal companion can also further the story — by being stolen, by running away, by leading the child or children to an important place, or by informing the adults that Timmy has fallen down the well … again.
An animal companion in a children’s story will usually be a more regular pet. They won’t have higher-than-average intelligence like a familiar, but they will be true to ‘their’ human and they will help the child or children master the challenges of the story.

An animal can also take on a different role, however, by being more than the average companion or even familiar. Sometimes, there’s more than your average dog, cat, bird, or lizard under that fur, those feathers, or those scales.
Perhaps the animal isn’t really an animal, but a transfigured human. Perhaps the animal is magical and has human intelligence. Perhaps the animal has been scientifically changed to be the perfect guardian for a biologist’s child. There are many ways to make an animal companion more than just your average animal. In that case, the animal can even be a traitor, leading the main character into a trap and leaving them there, delivering them to their enemy.
Anne, whose stories are planned, but not yet written, has an elder abomination by her side that has been stuck in the body of a cat for ages and started to display definitely cat-like traits. Yet, Necro is also still much more powerful than an average cat and can be an excellent protector if he can be properly motivated.

Animal companions, even those that are nothing more than regular animals, can fulfil a lot of different roles in a character’s life — they can be helpers, they can be emotional or practical support, they can be protectors, they can simply be playmates.
Being presented with a little pup or kitten can help a child overcome a hard cut in their life, such as the death of a parent or a move into a completely new environment. Finding a freezing animal in the rain can pull a character who is emotionally down out of their dudgeon and give them a new reason to live. Having an animal by their side can help your post-apocalyptic hero out there to find the way to the promised land with keeping up the search and stop them from feeling lonely and helpless. After all, there’s that crow who is always with them, they’re not alone!
Animal companions usually are not full characters. They don’t have their own internal arc under normal circumstances (although those ‘not quite an animal’ companions might have) and they have no identity of their own within the story, but are defined by the character they’re with. They can still play an important role in the story and be a great help to their human.

One more thing should be considered, though: a lot of people are more sensitive to the death or torture of an animal companion than to that of a regular side character (or even the main one).
It seems weird at first to think about that, but it does make sense to a degree, as animals have less agency and thus less ways to avoid such a fate than a human. So unless you have a very good reason to show the death of an animal companion, it’s a good idea not to put it into your story. Even if the companion seems little enough connected to the narrative (like Harry’s owl Hedwig), their deaths are often considered worse than that of a regular character. It might be a good idea to let that dog, cat, or owl live, unless it is absolutely necessary for the story to kill them.

Animal companions happen most often in children’s literature, but they can have their use in other kinds of stories, too. Even if the animal is not ‘real’ or the place of animal companion is, for instance, taken by a robot or suchlike, it can be a good idea to give a character someone to stay with them and whole-heartedly support them all through the story.