Pets can bring a number of advantages to you, mostly being a great help in [[combat]] or used as a beast of burden so you can run around with many [[items]] yet none of the [[encumberanceencumbrance]]. On the other hand, carnivorous pets will eat any corpse they can find or kill, potentially depriving you of sustenance, they may block your movement (especially stronger pets tend not to let you switch places with them) and be a general nuisance when they get lost chasing a harmless [[Monsters|monster]] and you have to search the whole floor for them. Also, keeping more than a few pets can get annoyingly tedious, though this problem is greatly reduced if you have a [[Musical Instrument|magic whistle]].