How Do YOU Organize Your Pets?

However, I have a motley collection of pets that don't look related to each other! Though I love each and every pet dearly, I do wish that I could organize them more efficiently. My Grape Chia, Maraquan Gelert, Royalboy Draik, and 8-Bit Cybunny are all as different as can be, and I must confess, sometimes I hate myself for loving them so much! They're preventing me from owning a themed account of my very own, and that makes my Neopets experience a little bittersweet.

Wanting to come up with some creative ways of showing off my pets, I asked the Neoboards how THEY organize the pets on their accounts. Which pets go on which accounts, and why? And how long did it take them to get every pet placed juuust right? I got many interesting replies!

Hands down, most people had my same obsession with themed accounts! Each player had a different kind of family. One player had all Island pets. Another player had all Darigan pets. I thought their accounts were really impressive, and the effect of having 4 of the same paint color was absolutely breathtaking!

However, there are also other ways of organizing our pets! One player said that she organizes her pets based on size. So her Pea Chia, Baby Xweetok, and Baby Krawk are all on the same account.

Another player said that she organizes her pets based on attitude. So her Fire Blumaroo, Wraith Pteri, Magma Acara, and Zombie Shoyru are on one account, while her other accounts hold "pretty" pets such as Faeries and Chocolates.

And yet another player organizes her pets based on species. She has a Hissi account, a Draik account, and an Aisha account. This seems to be the most popular way of organizing one's pets, and multiple people piped up to say that they had species accounts as well!

There is a new generation of players, however, that isn't concerned with Paint Brush colors! These players are obsessed with their battle pets, for instance, training them every day, and zapping them with the Secret Laboratory Ray too. These players keep their battle pets on their main accounts, in case a plot occurs that requires them to fight in the Battledome. Many players keep 2 separate battle pets -- one that is hand-trained with Dubloons and Codestones, and one that is purely for zapping with the Ray. These pets are always on their main accounts, alert and at the ready!

Other players are obsessed with pet trophies, such as book awards and the Beauty Contest. Now that the Neopets site is 17 years old, there are a lot of pets out there with numerous, shining trophies on their pet lookups! They add value to a pet when it's being traded, and I myself gave away a Buzz Darigan with 2 BC trophies to another player recently (for free, not for trade). One player that I spoke to said that her side account was purely for BC pets, and that's how it will stay!

Many people kept certain pets together on the same account because their stories were intertwined. Each pet had a story on its pet lookup, and each story featured a link to another pet's story. I thought this was an imaginative and creative way of organizing one's pets!

One player admitted that her side account is her "NC account." Basically, she only buys NC items on that particular account, and not on any other. She says that she has no way of transferring wearables around, so only the 4 pets on her side account get customized with items from the NC Mall. This means that she can't have pets like Vandagyres and Lutaris on that account, since not all of the NC wearables can be worn by them. Instead, her Vandagyre and Lutari are on other accounts, and there they'll stay!

And speaking of Lutaris, one player had a hilarious account populated by only Lutaris, in every basic color! Lutaris can't be transferred around, so they're basically stuck on that account. They were each wearing Slothy Smile, which made me choke on my coffee and die of laughter!

And speaking of hilarity, another player had 4 Yellow Gnorbus, all wearing the Hot Dog Mascot with Mustard outfit. She openly snuggled her "cute lil hot dogs" for all to see, and we all LOL'd at the sight of her ridiculous hot dog account! I love it when the players on this site have a sense of humor, and there's nothing more humorous than having 4 hot dogs as pets!

One player admitted that her main account is all about trophy pets, but not necessarily the pets she loves the most. So she has some unconverted pets on her main, as well as a Royalgirl Grarrl, that she loves to show off. However, she insisted that her favorite account was her side account, which held her converted Faerie Pteri and Faerie Peophin. Her main account is all about looking good, but her side account holds her ACTUAL favorite pets! I thought this was interesting!

One player took literally ONE YEAR to get all of her pets right. By "right," I mean having the right birthdays! All of her pets' birthdays hold special meaning for her (such as her birthday, her son's birthday, the day they adopted their puppy, etc.). She created each pet on each special day, and I was delighted and charmed to meet her! I've never heard of anyone being so obsessed with their pets' birthdays, and it inspired me to create pets of my own that would feature my friends' birthdays!

One player said that he keeps 4 pets on the same account because those are the pets whose petpages he modifies every week. One petpage features his Neopets poetry, another features his goals and ambitions, one lists his NC items up for trade, and one lists his pets up for trade. These pets don't look anything alike, but he lumps them together on one account because it's just easier to remember that his petpages are all on that account!

Many people arrived at the same idea, that one account was their "zap and pound" account. Basically, they would zap pets into interesting and beautiful colors, then leave them on their account while searching for excellent new owners that would love and treasure them. In the meanwhile, they would zap a new pet. Some of the people had pets like Spotted Gelerts and Robot Pteris on their zapping accounts for long periods of time, because they were having a hard time finding great new owners. I have a "zap and pound" account too, and yes, sometimes I have a hard time finding good owners too! It was interesting to know that I wasn't the only picky zapper in Neopia!

Many people also said they have a "pet trades" account that holds only those pets that they're trying to trade. They say that having such an account makes it easier to keep track of offers, since all the Neomails of interested traders get sent to the same username. Before I achieved all of my dream pets, I used to have a "pet trades" account too! I was amused to know I wasn't the only one with the neurotic need to keep all of my UFT pets on the same account!

And the most interesting thing that I learned about how people organize their pets? That most of the time, there's no rhyme and reason! Like me, most people have a diverse, ragtag group of pets that don't really match each other in any way! It was nice to know I wasn't alone in having 14 random pets of my own.

Also, I learned that the average Neopian moves his or her pets from account to account, never really satisfied with the result, and that his or her agony is compounded by the fact that TNT is constantly churning out new pet colors! The players know that an 8-Bit Vandagyre will exist someday, for instance, so would that pet belong on their 8-Bit account, or on their Vandagyre account?

So these were all the interesting ways in which we organize the pets on our accounts! It was fun chatting with people on the Neoboards to compile this list. Even though we're so diverse in our likes and tastes, it's fascinating that we have the same approaches to organizing our pets. Great minds think alike, perhaps?

Thanks for reading this article, and for replying to my threads on the Neoboards, my fellow Neopians! Talking with you all is always the highlight of my week. I'm glad to have met so many new people, and it was fun to pick your brains!

Stay tuned for future articles from yours truly, and have a terrific week!