History Main / SapientPet

* ''WesternAnimation/[[Transformers]]'': Played with regarding the animalistic cassetticons and recordbots working for Soundwave and Blaster. While they never talk in the cartoon, they're all but stated to be at least as intelligent as any other member of their teams. And in other mediums Ravage, Laserbeak, Steeljaw, and the rest are all fully capable of carrying fluent conversations.

* The title character of the ''Toto the Ninja Cat'' by Dermot O'Leary is a housepet (and [[TributeToFido based on O'Leary's own cat]], but also has a secret life as a ninja at night. She's part of [[MouseWorld a whole society]] of secretly-intelligent pets in London, with their own [[UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground Tube system]] and government (led by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_(cat) Larry the Downing Street Cat]]).

* ''Manga/OutlawStar'' has Melfina the android. She starts out as more of a crew pet and accessory and slowly grows into a regular part of the crew.

* [[IntellectualAnimal Dukey]] from ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'' is always a straight dog around Johnny's parents so his [[MadScientist sisters]] don't get in trouble. TheMenInBlack, Mr Black and Mr White, as well as their boss the General, know he's a talking dog. When he's out where other people will see him, he's usually wearing a shirt saying '[[BlatantLies Not A Dog]]', and described as 'the kid with the hair disorder'.

** This example has a lot of FurryConfusion going for it. Some of the non-pony animals, like sheep, are shown to be able to talk but for whatever reason, are treated like animals. The pets of the ponies, (like Angel Bunny, Opal for Rarity, and Owlicious for Twilight Sparkle) act more like their real life counterparts (except Angel, as stated, often pantomimes his wishes). It's hard to say what is and isn't sentient in that universe, considering RuleOfFunny comes into play so often.

* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' it's trivial to do a GameMod to turn any sentient species into one which can also be a pet, just by adding the [PET] tag to the right place in the right plain-text file. Of course, since the game designer never intended sentient species to be pets, this can lead to strange results, like a sentient pet being elected mayor.

* Corniel from ''WesternAnimation/WatchMyChops'' is a hyper-intelligent and very talented talking dog. He keeps this a secret to all but his dogsitter Bernie to avoid unwanted attention.

* Kat from ''WesternAnimation/KidVSKat'' is a hyperintelligent cat-like alien. He can't speak in the conventional sense, but he is very anthropomorphized in his actions. However, around everyone except Coop, Dennis and later Fiona, he seems like just an ordinary house cat.
* Corniel from ''WesternAnimation/WatchMyChops'' is an intelligent and very talented talking dog. He keeps this a secret to all but his dogsitter Bernie.

* Porkchop from ''WesternAnimation/Doug''

* In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', Perry the Platypus hides his sapience from his owners, beacause discovering that he's a secret agent would cause a '[[LaserGuidedAmnesia Mindwipe]]'. He cannot speak any human languague, but is completely sapient nonetheless.

* In Disney's ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', Jafar's parrot Iago is intelligent, but hides this from people like the sultan in the first movie.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* A few parrots have been known to be as articulate as the average four-year-old.

* Perry the Platypus hides his sapience from his owners, beacause discovering that he's a secret agent would cause a '[[LaserGuidedAmnesia Mindwipe]]'. He cannot speak any human languague, but is completely sapient nonetheless.

* Gromit the dog from ''Franchise/WallaceAndGromit'' wavers between Openly Sapient Pet and Sapient Pets That [[TheMasquerade Masquerade]] as Normal Pets Around Some Humans.

* Monkey from WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory.

* [[IntellectualAnimal Dukey]] from WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest is always a straight dog around Johnny's parents so his [[MadScientist sisters]] don't get in trouble. TheMenInBlack, Mr Black and Mr White, as well as their boss the General, know he's a talking dog. When he's out where other people will see him, he's usually wearing a shirt saying '[[BlatantLies Not A Dog]]', and described as 'the kid with the hair disorder'.

* Team Rocket's Meowth from ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' the Daedric Prince Clavicus Vile keep a Daedra named Barbas as a pet. Barbas is frank about his relationship with his master when interacting with others, but usually takes the form of a dog.

* Michigan J. Frog from the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' cartoon, "OneFroggyEvening," sings and dances when his owner is around, but just acts like a normal frog when any other human is around.

* Fat Cat in the PilotEpisode of ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'', and ''only'' in the pilot. After his owner Klordane is arrested, he becomes anthropomorphic completely.

* Fuu the dog from WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong. As a magical animal, he is usually is forced to act like a normal dog around humans in the mundane world. However, other than Jake who happens to be a human/dragon hybrid, Fuu is able to socialize around Jake's friends, Trixie and Spud, who are aware of the existence of the magical world.
* The same trope is used in TheLifeAndTimesOfJuniperLee, with their pet pug, who has a Scottish accent.