it's me, critterwitch! do you have any thoughts/resources on familiars? i've seen lots of conflicting opinions on the matter ("a familiar isn't a pet!" "a familiar isn't even a PHYSICAL BEING" i don't even know man)
Well, there's a couple of schools of thought there.
Yes, a familiar is more than a pet. A familiar is an animal companion who assists with witchcraft and sometimes carries messages and does other tasks at a witches' bidding. These creatures can be seen or unseen, and can occupy both physical and metaphysical planes of existence.
Now, in a practical sense, we don't all have metaphysical animal companions to help us out. But a number of us have pets with whom we share a special connection who always seem to show up whenever anything witchy is going on. My cat Sebastian and Nen's cat Aggro are two examples. This is the other type of familiar. It's a bit more mundane and not as powerful, but every bit as useful for those of us who don't delve into the invisible or astral planes in our witchcraft.
In general, a familiar is an animal, yes, but it's also far more, and it's important to remember that.