And I have no idea where to go from there. I'm leaning toward Fringer or Scout so it's not that far-fetched to think that my character would have picked up some exotic animal from a far-away place, but I'm looking for suggestions on the details.

Why would my character be so attached to such a pet, and more importantly, why would anyone else in the galaxy at large care enough for it to be a plot point? I'm not all that familiar with EU stuff, but are there any animals that might have some sort of importance?

Because the best idea I've got is that my pet is Nibbler from Futurama, and we use his droppings as starship fuel...

Lord Mirdalan. Should help

Have you ever owned a dog that has gotten loose? Did it make you worry? You drop everything to catch that dog and bring it home safely. Even if that's not you, I'm sure you've seen enough movies about a "boy and his dog" or similar trope and the inevitable evil person that comes and takes the dog away (think Toto and Miss Gulch).

Now magnify that to a galactic scale and make it Star Wars.

Additionally, as a GM, I would allow that "Pet" to be translated as "Droid".

"Go for the eyes, Boo, go for the eyes!"

Nibbler is a great idea! Nothing says you can't bridge that gap.

As far as pets go, is it specific to animals? If not, you could always go with a pet droid! Maybe it something more exotic like a dewback that you used to ride. Really, the sky is the limit.

I would suggest checking out Wookieepedia for some inspiration.

What's your Obligation? It might help to know that, because you could tie the two together.

Perhaps your pet was something like the only friend you ever had. Perhaps it was taken from you. Perhaps you are indeed wondering what ANYONE would want with your beloved companion. Perhaps, unbeknownst to you, your pet has a history you never knew about, a past you never suspected. Was it the test subject of a top-secret Imperial experiment, designed to create the ultimate blood sniffing hunter? You never knew your pet to be so dangerous, but then--it liked you. Or perhaps that shiny little bauble on it's collar held more than met the eye? You liked the look of it, and always assumed it was a memento from a previous owner and never considered taking it off. In fact, now that you think about it, whenever you tried to examine it your pet was never too keen on letting it go. What is that thing? What's inside that thing? A valuable star map, secret hyperspace route, coordinates to a vast treasure, or secret plans that could topple the status quo? Where the hell did your faithful friend come from, and what role does it play in the galaxy? You don't know, but you're going to get that poor critter back!

There's a lot of ways you could go with it.

Not for nothing, but you might want to look up Gizka. They're interesting. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Gizka

This list might be useful too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_creatures

Have you ever owned a dog that has gotten loose? Did it make you worry? You drop everything to catch that dog and bring it home safely. Even if that's not you, I'm sure you've seen enough movies about a "boy and his dog" or similar trope and the inevitable evil person that comes and takes the dog away (think Toto and Miss Gulch).

Now magnify that to a galactic scale and make it Star Wars.

Additionally, as a GM, I would allow that "Pet" to be translated as "Droid".

Droid Companion is also a Motivation.

Have you ever owned a dog that has gotten loose? Did it make you worry? You drop everything to catch that dog and bring it home safely. Even if that's not you, I'm sure you've seen enough movies about a "boy and his dog" or similar trope and the inevitable evil person that comes and takes the dog away (think Toto and Miss Gulch).

Now magnify that to a galactic scale and make it Star Wars.

Additionally, as a GM, I would allow that "Pet" to be translated as "Droid".

Droid Companion is also a Motivation.

Sure is. I wouldn't let that stop my player from making the "pet" motivation a droid. Heck, I let my players pick their motivations instead of rolling them and they can roll if they're just at a loss or need some inspiration. Basically as long as they can come up with anything that motivates them (on or off the charts) and they're willing to do some good roleplaying for XP, I'm all for it. And so should you (points at every other GM... just kidding, run your game the way you want.)

I guess I'm saying I'm not a rules lawyer, I'm a fun lawyer. Wait...what? That came out wrong...

If I were trying to create a character based solely on this random motivation role, I might go with something like this:

PC grew up on a remote planet, nowhere planet like Tatooine, raised by his grandfather, who had a beloved "space hound" (for simplicity's sake, let's call the pet Happy). After a hard day of labor on the farm/in the mines/cutting down lumber, young PC and Grandpa would relax on the porch, Happy on Grandpa's lap, watching the sunset, and joke about how "Someday, we're gonna leave this place and watch the sun set on other worlds." "Which worlds, Grandpa?" "All of 'em."

But of course, they never left, and one day, Grandpa passed. Maybe he knew it was coming, and on his deathbed, staring out the window at the setting sun, he told the PC, "Don't let this world break you down like it broke me. You sell this house. You get out of here. You take Happy and you go. And as long as he's watching the sunset with you, a part of me will be, too."

Perhaps you had a pet Rancor and it is now in the dungeons of a dangerous Hutt, fighting fledgling force sens... or maybe another Hutt dungeon, definitely not that one....

...im sure he's fine...

... but you might want to go check...

Perhaps you had a pet Rancor and it is now in the dungeons of a dangerous Hutt, fighting fledgling force sens... or maybe another Hutt dungeon, definitely not that one....

Or you have a pet rancor and it's still with you!

Perhaps you had a pet Rancor and it is now in the dungeons of a dangerous Hutt, fighting fledgling force sens... or maybe another Hutt dungeon, definitely not that one....

...im sure he's fine...

... but you might want to go check...

I see what you did there.

Go for crazy cat lady. In space.

Have you ever owned a dog that has gotten loose? Did it make you worry? You drop everything to catch that dog and bring it home safely. Even if that's not you, I'm sure you've seen enough movies about a "boy and his dog" or similar trope and the inevitable evil person that comes and takes the dog away (think Toto and Miss Gulch).

Now magnify that to a galactic scale and make it Star Wars.

Additionally, as a GM, I would allow that "Pet" to be translated as "Droid".

Droid Companion is also a Motivation.

Sure is. I wouldn't let that stop my player from making the "pet" motivation a droid. Heck, I let my players pick their motivations instead of rolling them and they can roll if they're just at a loss or need some inspiration. Basically as long as they can come up with anything that motivates them (on or off the charts) and they're willing to do some good roleplaying for XP, I'm all for it. And so should you (points at every other GM... just kidding, run your game the way you want.)

I guess I'm saying I'm not a rules lawyer, I'm a fun lawyer. Wait...what? That came out wrong...

There are fun lawyers?

Picking your Motivation manually is actually allowed by the rules, which I guess is why it seemed odd to me. Why not just pick "Droid Companion"? But I understand what you're saying.

Or maybe you are a hard bitten Merc who wouldn't think twice about shooting a person in cold blood for breathin' funny...and you ADORE your very expensive very high maintenance show cat named Boof.

If I were trying to create a character based solely on this random motivation role, I might go with something like this:

PC grew up on a remote planet, nowhere planet like Tatooine, raised by his grandfather, who had a beloved "space hound" (for simplicity's sake, let's call the pet Happy). After a hard day of labor on the farm/in the mines/cutting down lumber, young PC and Grandpa would relax on the porch, Happy on Grandpa's lap, watching the sunset, and joke about how "Someday, we're gonna leave this place and watch the sun set on other worlds." "Which worlds, Grandpa?" "All of 'em."

But of course, they never left, and one day, Grandpa passed. Maybe he knew it was coming, and on his deathbed, staring out the window at the setting sun, he told the PC, "Don't let this world break you down like it broke me. You sell this house. You get out of here. You take Happy and you go. And as long as he's watching the sunset with you, a part of me will be, too."

This is extremely sweet, and well-written. That would be a compelling beginning.

Have you ever owned a dog that has gotten loose? Did it make you worry? You drop everything to catch that dog and bring it home safely. Even if that's not you, I'm sure you've seen enough movies about a "boy and his dog" or similar trope and the inevitable evil person that comes and takes the dog away (think Toto and Miss Gulch).

Now magnify that to a galactic scale and make it Star Wars.

Additionally, as a GM, I would allow that "Pet" to be translated as "Droid".

Yes, actually, my dog did get loose for a week a few years back, and "drop everything" was an understatement. That's totally me, but it just seems a bit "off" for Star Wars.

But yeah, a lot of GREAT suggestions so far (and so quickly, too!).

It's worth mentioning that I was really undecided about my character, so I wanted to randomly roll obligation and motivation, and I even ended up randomly rolling between bothan and human. The obligation/motivation combo DID help me pick my career, though.

I ended up with Blackmail as my obligation, and I went with Explorer - Fringer. I think I might go with something like, I stumbled upon some secret Imperial facility and the commanding officer took pity on me. I was allowed to keep my life, but unless I do his bidding from time to time he'll submit an official report that I was there.

But yeah, I'll sleep on it regarding the pet stuff.

Jacen Solo from the Young Jedi Knight series kept an entire menagerie of animals, and he went to great lengths to keep them comfortable. Even spawned several quests.

As many have already mentioned, beasts are a huge part of SW lore--so much so that I'm surprised there aren't any rules for animal mounts. As a side note, have you considered that maybe your character really is a "scruffy nerfherder?"

In the beta I had a player (a tech) had a Kowakian monkey-lizard, it would cause trouble when it came up as an obligation, but was a great narrative tool for spending advantage/disadvantage. The system is very flexable and allows for an animal companion very easily without being unbalancing for the other players, adding more choices when it comes to describing how spending a destiny or advantage effect the story.

What about if your beloved pet is ill? Vet bills are expensive. A long term illness that needs regular medication might force your character to take all sort of unsavoury jobs to pay for Mr Tiddles tummy medicine.

Dog (yes, they have plain ole dogs in SW)

Anooba (doglike)

A neek would be good for an explorer.

Gizka (most spaceports and such would hate to see one of these, very invasive, they damage spaceships)

Climbing tauntauns are oddly cute and ugly at the same time.

A Blistmok would be an intimidating pet to have.

Greysors are cat like semi-aquatic animals.

A wyrwulf would be funny, especially if the character didn't know what it really was. Basically a 6 legged dog that eventually turns into a humanoid.

A Cannok would be funny. Lots of great negatives could come from having this as a pet. It eats your favorite blaster or damages the ship by eating some important part.

The Kowakian monkey lizard is a pretty annoying pet. It would again give the GM a little leeway in how to make it bad for you.

Worrts are big ugly frogs.

Massiffs are kind of cool.

Voorpak are both creepy and cute.

Vornskr are cool, but not if you are going to have a force user in the group.

The Kowakian monkey lizard is a pretty annoying pet. It would again give the GM a little leeway in how to make it bad for you.

If a character's major underpinning motivation is their pet, the monkey lizard being played as a constant source of narrative threat and despair results could cause some in-character issues. Might be more interesting to have the galaxy's most awesome monkey lizard that the party can really get behind and support their PC buddy in.

Basically, put it in a tuxedo with a monacle and let it smoke cigars on roller skates. That is like waking up every day to a Triumph result.

The Monkey-Lizard in our game was great for me as a GM and for the group, as long as it's loathed and loved in equal measure things work out fine. Although I should state that ours was an Obligation rather than a Motivation.

You might find hunting through some deviant art pages useful. This is the guy who does the Art for Anima RPG;

http://wen-m.deviantart.com/gallery/

Jackalope;

http://wen-m.deviantart.com/art/Day-6-Jackalope-365129509

Cockatrice; (*sigh* turning to stone won't work...)

http://wen-m.deviantart.com/art/Day-7-Cockatrice-365375195

Two Headed Dog?

http://wen-m.deviantart.com/art/Day-9-Orthrus-365806646

Hmm... This looks pretty alien;

http://wen-m.deviantart.com/art/Day-5-Haku-Taku-364823704

Balloon Frog (they inhale when they get scared)

http://wen-m.deviantart.com/art/Anima-balloon-frog-78465553

Peacock Spider

http://wen-m.deviantart.com/art/Anima-Peacock-Spider-88807667

Really, just pick something cool and go with it.