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Head Pet

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I've got a little cutie on my mind.
Botan: Aw, it's got your hair!
Yusuke: Yeah, it's got it right between its grubby little claws and it ain't lettin' go!

A pet. On someone's head.

From an animation standpoint this serves the purpose of bringing the animal in question closer to the faces of the human characters, so they can both be in close shots at once. Truth in Television in the case of pets, such as birds, that like to be as high up as possible.

Of course they could just be there because they're really cute and easily made into toys.

Often the owner of the head is an unwilling steed, as the Head Pet is strangely attracted to Deadpan Snarkers and their ilk. Otherwise they can put the human who puts up with this treatment firmly in Cloudcuckoolander territory, particularly if they claim not to notice them.

See also Team Pet, Pirate Parrot, Parrot Pet Position, Feather Boa Constrictor and Live Mink Coat. Contrast with Cranium Ride. Compare characters who wear or are Living Hats (such as those which sort you into a House/Clan/etc. or assist the hero in his quest). Not to be confused with petting someone on the head or a pet who is the head of something.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • In ½ Prince, Meatbun (a meatbun-shaped familiar) is often seen riding atop the head of Doll, the little girl necromancer.
  • Ah! My Goddess: In a moment of drunkenly excessive pity, Belldandy teleports a homeless cat to a place of safety and comfort: the temple complex, where it materializes atop Urd's head. It is still riding her head a few minutes later when Urd takes a phone call from Keiichi.
  • Air Gear: Granted it doesn't appear very often, but the small crow Kuu actually LIVES, as in its nest is in the main character's hair in earlier chapters of manga. Ridiculously used in the anime, as the crow was there so that he could become the Scenery Censor.
  • Wanna see a cat resting on top of another cat? Take a look at Nekoconeko from Azumanga Daioh. And then Sakaki puts a Nekoconeko on her head...
  • Dan's pet (and occasional mask) Spanky in Basquash!.
  • In Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, the cyborg representative of the Jupiter Union carries a cyborg cat on his head.
  • In Black Clover, the protagonist gains one in the form of a Magic-Hating Crow that he names Nero. It often makes itself a nuisance by pecking Asta's head for attention, but can also prove to be very useful as a magic compass of sorts when looking for valuable treasure. It's the perfect disguise, too...
  • Puck the elf from Berserk likes to perch on Isidro’s head, Ivalera the female elf likewise sits in Schieke’s hat.
  • Partially applies to Yachiru from Bleach and her love of resting on (and chewing!) Ikkaku's head. Also partially applies from the way she spends a lot of time on Kenpachi's shoulder.
  • The pet shop owner in Cowboy Bebop episode "Stray Dog Strut" wears a turtle on her head.
  • Timcanpy from D.Gray-Man likes resting on Allen's head. And General Cross' too. Often in the midst of battle.
  • Mocchi, the weird alien-blob thing in DearS, likes being worn as a hat.
  • Digimon:
  • More than one Doraemon film:
  • Anemone's overweight pet badger in Eureka Seven decides to spend the last few episodes on Dominic's head or shoulder.
  • Menchi from Excel♡Saga is depicted in a lot of official artwork being held by Excel on her head. The classic pose is incredibly popular with cosplayers.
  • Ta-kun, the small black cat in FLCL, is often sitting on either Mamimi's or Canti's head.
  • Adorable midget panda Xiaomei sometimes rides around on her person May Chang's head in the Fullmetal Alchemist manga.
  • Ebi, the weird alien pet from the Girls Bravo manga, sometimes rides on Tomoka's head.
  • Hanamaru Kindergarten offers a human variation, where kindergartener Anzu will scramble up her teacher Tsuchida's body and sit on his shoulders. Naturally, it's adorable.
  • Though not yet in the manga or anime, Shiranui of Hayate the Combat Butler does this for Nagi's figurine.
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers:
    • Prussia, with his mysterious little chickie.
    • Mr. Puffin, Iceland's Non-Human Sidekick, is almost always on his head, or on his shoulder.
    • Philippines has a pet tarsier named Pien-kun, who is often on his shoulder or head.
  • The Idolmaster: Hamzou seems fond of staying on either Hibiki's head or shoulder.
  • Chino puts a pet rabbit named "Tippy" (which resembles a white cottonball) on her head frequently in Is the Order a Rabbit?.
  • That cat, Pirozhki aka. "Piro", that Makoto finds and wears on her head in Kanon.
  • Flashbacks in Kill la Kill show that Nonon had a pet monkey when she was in preschool that rode on her head. It's even implied to have continued this trope post-mortem, with its skull adorning her hat in the present.
  • Maro rides on Misako Kurata's head in Kodocha. Mama Kurata even answers (In-Universe!) the inevitable Fridge Logic of having a squirrel in your head — Maro knows better than to poop where it lives, so it leaves Mama's head to fertilize the houseplants instead. Maro even wipes afterwards!
  • Tama, the flying turtle in Love Hina.
  • Yuuno in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha occasionally takes this position. When he's in his ferret form, that is.
  • Madam Torogai from Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit often has a a rabbit-like dog resting in her hat.
  • King, the lion cub from Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, sometimes rides atop his mistress' head.
  • Naruto:
    • Kiba has his dog Akamaru on his head. At some point during the time skip he got too big (which Kiba didn't notice since he was there the whole time), and Akamaru eventually got large enough for Kiba to ride him. The cutest part? Kiba doesn't even notice the role-reversal until Naruto points it out.
    • The summoned toads Gamakichi and Gamatatsu are similar examples: when they're first summoned they're small enough that they occasionally ride on Naruto's head, but after the Time Skip they're big enough for Naruto to ride on one (which Gamakichi eventually does).
  • In Nagasarete Airantou Tonkatsu the pet pig is often seen on Ikuto or Suzu's head while they are walking.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
    • Chamo is a straight example of this; he has ridden on Negi's head multiple times, and probably about each 3-A girls' head at least once. And he once hid in the front of Asakura's vest (it was her idea).
    • Variation with ghost girl Sayo; when she's possessing a small doll, she sometimes sits on people's heads, usually Asakura's.
    • Also, when the girls were throwing Chao a going-away party, Zazie gives her a tiny dragon as a present. A live one. Invoking the trope, she puts it on Chao's head, where it spends most of the scene chewing on her hair.
  • In One Piece tiny reindeer-human Chopper frequently takes a head ride on Zoro (to his annoyance), Sanji, Franky and even Law.
    • Ironically, an arc before Chopper was introduced, Zoro did this with giant Broggy on the cover spread.
    • In Wano, Usopp has a pet frog that rides on his head.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • "You with the Pikachu on your head! Listen with your ears, not with your mouth!" Though Pikachu has since moved to Ash's shoulder.
    • Eevee does this with Mikey in the Pikachu Shocks Back manga.
    • Piplup has started riding on Dawn's head.
    • And the Team Rocket trio's Meowth occasionally hitches a ride on Jessie's or James's head.
    • In a more amusing example, Ash is somehow stable enough to support a baby Hippopotas on his head. In the games, it weighs in at 109 pounds!
    • A less severe example, but there's also May's Beautifly, whose in-game weight (62 pounds or 28 kilograms) should have had some ill effects on the poor girl (and Ash).
    • In DP, Jessie's Yanmega (113 lbs/51 kg) enjoys resting on Team Rocket's heads. James probably prefers it to being chewed on by Carnivine.
    • Iris, Ash's new travel companion for the Unova region, has an Axew which lives in her massively large mass of hair. With Axew weighing in at over 39 pounds (18 kg), it's a wonder Iris isn't going bald.
    • The Munchlax, which in one episode the Tagalong Kid Max has no problem carrying on his shoulders. At 231 pounds (105 kg), Munchlax likely weighs two or three times as much as the one carrying it.
    • Bianca's Minccino sometimes sits on top of her head.
    • Clemont's Dedenne occasionally perches itself on Bonnie's head. Though by XYZ, it also travels in Bonnie's purse, along with Squishy.
    • Noibat, one of Ash's Pokémon in XY, enjoys being on top of Hawlucha's head, another one of Ash's Pokémon! It will also occasionally rest on his shoulders. For reference, Noibat is more than a third of Hawlucha's own weight.
  • In Pokémon Adventures, Black's Munna (51 lbs/23 kg) rides on his head to feed on his distracting dreams. His Tepig also sometimes hitches a ride in his jacket hood.
  • In Potemayo, the title moeblob spends much of its time sitting on Sunao's head. And she generally has a small yellow bird on her head at the same time.
  • In one Ranma ½ story, Kunō buys the egg of a "legendary phoenix" that will supposedly grant him an incredible sword technique, but he is warned to never put the egg on his head. Ranma "accidentally" does just that, and it promptly hatches into a stupid-looking birdie that imprints on the first person it sees each day and psychotically attacks them, though it may as well be glued to Kunō's head. The fact it can also emit a paralyzing/electrifying stare against that person means that they can't fight back. Ranma, naturally, wants the thing gone, so he starts feeding it special growth pellets... which, in the anime, results in it growing to kaiju size and flying about wrecking the city. And all the while, it's still stuck to Kunō's head.
  • In Reborn! (2004), Reborn's partner, Leon the chameleon, rides on the side of Reborn's hat; in fact, all arcobaleno have animal partners, some of which ride on their heads. Also, Kyoya Hibari has his little bird Hibird riding either there or on his shoulder.
  • Rosario + Vampire Season II: Kokoa's shapeshifting pet bat Kou-chan sits sometimes on her hat. Regardless which form it takes, it always weighs 100kg. Only Kokoa has no problem with his weight, since she's a vampire, the physically strongest yokai race of the series; in an omake, Tsukune tries to host him similarly and gets crushed. Despite being the "weakest" among her sisters, Kokoa is physically the strongest of them.
  • Diana from Sailor Moon, occasionally. Luna and Artemis are shoulder and neck pets.
  • Shakugan no Shana: She may not really qualify as a pet, but we really can't forget that Shana-tan lives on Yuji's head.
  • Sometimes, in Soul Eater, the Magical Cat Girl Blair stays on Maka's head (while in her cat-form, of course).
    • After having his consumed souls removed, Ragnarok shrinks from the size of a large man to a small enough that he sometimes perches on top of Crona's head.
  • Sword Art Online
    • Pina is a Shoulder-Sized Dragon Familiar to Silica the "Beast Tamer", a title she earned for befriending the dragon in SAO (and later in ALfheim Online as well).
    • Starting in the Phantom Bullet arc, Kirito's ALO avatar has a flatter hairstyle that more resembles his IRL/SAO appearance. The reason is that Yui does this in Navi-Pixie form, and the hairstyle he originally had in ALO made it uncomfortable.
  • In Tamako Market, Talking Bird Dela seems most comfortable on Tamako's head. He's spent so much time up there she can tell when he's one glass of water heavier than normal.
  • The Phoenix Tayutai in Tayutama, which initially takes to resting on Yumina's head in the form of a plump bird.
  • Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee has a pet monster named Steak who is often seen on Niche's head. Has also been used as bait and (almost cooked) as emergency food.
  • Ryo-ohki from Tenchi Muyo! commonly sits on Sasami's head and occasionally sits on other people's heads as well.
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has Boota sometimes sitting on Simon's head. However, he definitely prefers Yoko's... "comfortable place".
  • Mokona in Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-. Not the first time a self-insert did it, to much chagrin of the wearer: God!Mokona did it with princey boy for quite some time in the forest of Silence in at least the manga version of Magic Knight Rayearth. (Including a hilarious scene where Ferio's acting all cool and nonchalant, yet Mokona's still hanging around on his head.)
  • Tora, a cat-like demon, from Ushio and Tora. Tora usually rides on Ushio's shoulders. Hilariously, he's several times larger than Ushio, so often looks comical when riding on the latter's head.
  • YuYu Hakusho: Pu/Pusuke is Urameshi's monster that nests in Yusuke's head, to his dislike. At least it doesn't kill him... It "grows up" later, so he can ride on its head.

    Comic Books 
  • Used twice in Fred Perry's Gold Digger comics.
    • First, scary-as-hell Japanese professional fighter Ayane's cat has been known to ride on her head or shoulder from time to time.
    • Second, Really 700 Years Old teacher Miss Giggle has a cat on her head that has been magically fused with her hair.
  • In X-Club, a telepathic starfish "bonds" to Doctor Nemesis' head. Nemesis wants to get rid of it because the starfish is also broadcasting all of his thoughts, revealing, among other things, that he actually likes his co-workers.
  • In Don Rosa 's Scrooge McDuck story "Return to Forbidden Valley", Scrooge and his nephews camp out for the night while searching for the lost Donald. Their campfire ends up attracting an enormous moth that insists on using Dewey's head as a seat while it gazes at the fire, and refuses to be scared away. It ends up staying the night with the group and even lets Dewey use it as a pillow, before departing on its own once they break camp.
  • In Lumberjanes, Molly's coonskin hat is actually a live raccoon named Bubbles who just sleeps on her head until she needs some help.

    Comic Strips 
  • Cap'n Eddie's cat in Non Sequitur appears to have been planted on its owner since Woodstock.
  • FoxTrot: Jason Fox often carries his pet iguana, Quincy, on his head.
  • Mr. Nutmeg sometimes walks around with the title cat balanced on his head in Heathcliff.
  • In Scary Gary, Leopold’s lab rat Lab Rat’s favorite place to be is on top of Leopold’s head. Occasionally he will sit on Travis’ jar instead.
  • In Zits, Connie adopts a foster kitten whom Jeremy names Clapton and who takes to sleeping on his head.

    Fan Works 
  • In the Harry Potter Fanfiction A Tisket, a Tasket, Five Kittens in a Basket, and its sequel, Snape is the Best Medicine, his Kneazle kitten Fred refuses to sit anywhere but on his head. Draco lampshades this.
  • In A Snake Named Voldemort, snake!Voldemort occasionally sits on Harry's head. Sometimes it's to get a good view of his surroundings, but usually it's to creep out everyone within sight.
  • Adopted Displaced (a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic crossover series): Pops up in a couple of installments of this series.
    • Three More Things!: Sweetie Belle especially has a habit of sitting on Uncle's head when she's very young. The others do it too sometimes.
    • Wily's Wittle Wub: Vinyl Scratch likes to ride on the head of Dr. Albert Wily (her new father) — she was actually there when he woke up one morning, but he didn't realize it until Dr. Light surprised him by asking him why he has a unicorn clinging to his head. Some years later, Wily eventually tells Vinyl that she's getting a little too big to keep doing this, and she responds by offering to build him a new spine so his neck can still handle her size.
  • The Boy in the Book has a owl choosing Harry as her wizard by perching on his head and refusing to leave. His schoolmates find it quite funny and nickname the owl "Wig".
  • Boldores And Boomsticks gives us Nocturne/Nox, Ruby's Zubat/Crobat who likes to rest in Ruby's hair. Word of God is that he barely grew as a Crobat specifically so he could still sit on her head. Yang's Torchic, Lux, used to do the same before he evolved and grew too big.
    Yang: Well, the Weiss Queen still can’t be appeased, but I got a new hat like Ruby’s!
    Blake: You realize you don’t get to complain if I call your hair a bird’s nest from now on, right?
    Weiss: I guess it runs in the family. Ruby has bats in her belfry, and Yang’s going cuckoo.
    Yang: Weiss! I am such a bad influence on you! I’m so proud!

    Films — Animation 
  • In Home (2015), Pig the cat finds Oh's head very comfortable and treats him like a mobile cat bed. Clinging to Tip's head is also how he saved her from the Boov abductions.
  • Remy the Rat in Ratatouille certainly would not consider himself a pet, but he still rides Linguini's head while taking advantage of the fact that the human's toque (cook's hat) can easily hide him.
  • Pascal the chameleon in Tangled.
  • In Turning Red, a kitten manages to climb up onto Mei's head.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In Peter Jackson's The Hobbit movies, Radagast the Brown has a whole family of small birds nesting on his head.

    Gamebooks 
  • Subverted with the evil Gonchong of the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. Sure, this arachnid creature likes to ride on top of the head of humanoids... but to skewer it with a long proboscis that takes control of the brain.

    Jokes 
  • There's an old joke involving a bartender hearing someone coming in and ordering a drink. He turns to see a man with a frog on his head. The bartender says, "Huh, that's odd" to which the frog replies, "I know! It started out as a pimple on my ass."
  • A variant on the theme features a person, usually a pirate, walking into a bar with a parrot or other piratical pet on their head. The bartender says, "Hey, that's pretty neat, where'd you find him?" "Tortuga," the parrot replies, "They're all over the place!"
  • There's another about a fellow who pours the last little bit of his beer into his hat. The bartender asks why, and he is rudely ordered to mind his own business. Then a (completely smashed) mouse surfaces and informs him the same goes for his cat.

    Literature 
  • Discworld:
    • The Duck Man, first seen in Soul Music. Played with in that he has no idea he has a duck on his head, and is confused that everyone around him always seems to be talking about some duck somewhere. "Isn't it time to feed your duck?" "What duck?"
    • Not unlike a costume Rincewind wears in Unseen Academicals, in which the other wizards chase him around the campus in one of UU's inexplicable traditions. In that case, the duck is a wooden fake, though they used to use a real one. This is based on a real practice still observed in Oxford University.
    • In Wintersmith, Granny Weatherwax carries her kitten You under her witch hat to keep her head warm — or so she says.
    • In Wyrd Sisters, the Fool was tasked with retrieving Nanny Ogg's notoriously intractable cat Greebo from the castle kitchens. Greebo subsequently pounced on the Fool's head, found he couldn't claw through the chainmail coifnote  he was wearing under his hat as a precaution against something like this (just because he's a Fool, doesn't mean he's stupid), and wound up clinging to the mail all the way out of the castle and into the woods.
    • While passing for traveling entertainers in Jingo, Lord Vetinari uses sleight-of-hand to make a baby chicken appear under Sgt. Colon's fez. An unhousebroken chick, as it happens.
    • In The World of Poo, Old Pediment the gargoyle wears a wooden pigeon-decoy on his head, so actual (tasty!) pigeons will assume it's safe to land near him.
    • In Lords and Ladies, we're told that Madame Cupidor, the mistress of Mad King Soup II used to wear a wig with a birdcage built into it. And that wasn't even her fancy one (which had a calendar, a floral clock and a linguini restaurant).
  • The native habitat of Baby Fuzzy in H. Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy.
  • In Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series, firelizards that have impressed on a human will ride around on them. Most prefer to ride on their human's shoulders, but Menolly, who impressed a whole brood of nine of them (and later accidentally added a tenth), usually has one on her head. Beauty, her little queen, is the one who most frequently travels this way, and is fond of hiding in Menolly's hair.
  • Averted in Dragon, when Vlad enlists temporarily in an army. When a dissatisfied officer asks if Loiosh has to ride around on his shoulder, the jhereg quips that he could stand on his boss's head instead, but Vlad would probably get tired of that.
  • In a children's book featuring The Stupids, Mrs. Stupid wears a cat on her head when she goes out with the family.
  • In the Russian comedic fantasy series Adventures of Zhihar, the hero Zhihar the Bogatyr has a bird companion Budimir, the magic rooster. Said rooster prefers to roost on Zhihar's helmet; later Zhihar loses his helmet to a freak timey wimey incident and switches to wearing a cowboy hat, Budimir finds the hat just as comfortable to ride.
  • Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: A Justified Trope, from the first story, Bianca's cat, Jinkies, lands on Selvi's head, and specifically her head, because it smells nice:
    Bianca looked up to find her kitty dangling from the parlor's unlit chandelier. "Jinkies! Get down from there this instant!"
    "Mrrow?"
    "Yes, right now!"
    The witch would later claim that the cat's choice of landing spots was completely out of her control, but Selvi still didn't forgive her for a long time after. If anyone had asked the cat - which of course no one had - they would have learned that the little feline liked the smell of the half-orc's hair. That's why he'd aimed directly for her braided scalp with all four sets of claws leading the way.
  • In Mary Alice Downie's short story "Alexander Alone", a young boy has a tame chipmunk for a companion and it often rides on his head "like a tiny striped fur cap."

    Live-Action TV 
  • Niles' pet cockatoo, Baby, on Frasier. One episode in particular centers around him unable to remove her from his scalp at a party, after she digs her claws in after being spooked by the doorbell and the fireplace.
  • The Tonight Show:
    • A pygmy marmoset once climbed up onto Johnny Carson's head. It wasn't a pet, and didn't stay there long, yet it earned a place in countless blooper-reels and retrospectives by doing, while it was up there, something which actual pet monkeys are diapered to prevent.
    • Years later, both Jay Leno and his zookeeper guest had scarlet ibises invoke this trope on their heads. Luckily, the birds refrained from also invoking Urine Trouble.
  • Subverted on Las Vegas, when a guest's pet rat got lost in the hotel's ventilation system, found its way to an open wall vent, and attempted to climb down onto the nearest person's head. The head's owner panicked, grabbed the rat, and threw it fatally against a wall.
  • A rather non-comedic version appears late in Kamen Rider Double, where we learn that the Terror Dopant's giant headdress can "split off" into a gigantic monster called the Terror Dragon, which badly injures Kamen Rider Accel. Okay, maybe it's a little comedic, simply because the dragon has a goofy, "Chinese New Year parade float" appearance to it.
  • Not shown, but one of the interns on Bones confessed to having stolen Brennan's iguana and worn it on his head to a party.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation:
    • Luwaxana Troi says that it was formerly the custom for Betazed noblewomen to wear elaborate headresses containing cages with live birds in them, "which was uncomfortable for the women and cruel to the birds."
    • For a slightly loose definition of "pet," tribbles are sometimes seen on people's heads.
  • Subverted in Good Omens where several high-ranking demons like Beelzebub, Duke Hastur or Dagon are portrayed as carrying the animal they're associated with (flies, toads, etc.) on their head. However, although the creatures are shown to move semi-independently from their masters on occasion, they're actually a part of the demon itself, so they aren't really pets in the traditional sense of the word.

    Music 
  • "The Bird on Nellie's Hat", first recorded and released by Helen Trix in 1906. The titular bird sees all of Nellie's beaux and knows when she lies to them.
  • Weird Al's 2003 album Poodle Hat. The dog's name is Bela, and provides a bark for "Genius in France".

    Podcasts 
  • In the Cool Kids Table game Small Magic, Stege ends up with one of the Queen's blue jays nesting in his hair. He almost forgets about it. He later names it Byrb.
  • In The Fallen Gods, Solvin ends up with a Maine Coon after Tuatha's wild magic summons several cats during a battle, which later begins sitting on his head most of the time. It ends up (fittingly) named Crown.

    Roleplay 
  • We Are All Pokémon Trainers:
    • Sunny the Umbreon not only serves as his Trainer's Head Pet and a nice hat, but also thanks to typing as an (unwilling) anti-conspiracy device, as he blocks Psychic attempts to read his Trainer's mind.
    • Turns into a Running Gag with Silent's Pokémon. Pretty much all of them but the largest ones, such as Ichtacya (Leafeon) have taken turns as the Head Pet or even openly fought over the position. At a particular point during the Orange Islands, Dintel (Sandshrew) was Silent's head pet, but at the same time had Shahinne (Starly) as his own head pet.

    Tabletop Games 
  • From Dungeons & Dragons, the description of the pseudodragon from the Monstrous Manual specifies that it likes to ride on the head of its humanoid companions.

    Video Games 
  • In Ape Escape 2, Pipochi rests on Jimmy's head when he stands still.
  • Bust a Groove has Columbo, the pet mouse of cute hip-hop dancer Shorty, who sits on her head in the second game. If you manage to dance well enough for Shorty to reach her maximum dance level, then Columbo will hop off of her head during her next combo finisher and join her in dancing for the rest of the musical number. He's also unlockable as a solo dancer.
  • Nagino Ise from Castle of Shikigami fights with a bunny on her head (the bunny also wears an aviator helmet).
  • Dragalia Lost has Mitsuhide, Leader of the Mouse Clan, who has a mouse on her head named Bonnie.
  • A weird variant in Final Fantasy VII: Cait Sith is a small cat who rides on top of a giant Moogle. However, it's the moogle that doesn't say or do anything, and is only used by Cait Sith to move around and attack. Of course, neither one is really a pet — they're both toys that are remotely controlled by someone else entirely.
  • In Final Fantasy XIII, Sazh Katzroy has a baby chocobo living in his Afro.
  • In Final Fantasy XIV, certain minions will sit on your shoulder under certain circumstances... unless you are a Lalafell, which will cause them to sit on your head instead.
  • Gaia Online
    • Several pets that can be equipped onto the user's avatar. Invariably, one of the poses will be the pet perched on the avatar's head.
    • The Merch includes plush versions of the pets which come with places to attach headbands so that you can wear them on your head.
  • Margarita's frog Surely from GrimGrimoire.
  • Dr. Kleiner's pet headcrab Lamarr in Half-Life 2 seems to like resting on people's heads. Admittedly, it's trying to puncture their skull and take over their nervous system, but it's been defanged so nobody... well, Kleiner doesn't mind. Nobody else likes Lamarr.
  • The Pokémon Swablu is said to do this in its Pokédex entries.
  • Several of MapleStory's Cash Shop hats take the form of pets that sleep on the wearer's head.
  • Nebs 'n Debs: Pet or no pet, Nebs spends the game sitting on Debs' head.
  • Ragnarok Online pretty much has a whole class of headgears that qualify as head pets. Cats, rabbits, dogs, even the series' own homonculi...
  • In Title Defense mode of the Wii Punch-Out!!, Bear Hugger acquires a pet squirrel, who spends the fight under his black stocking cap. Which leads to the priceless sight of Bear Hugger lifting the cap, the squirrel coming out, as he yells "Hat trick!"
  • Knights in the Nightmare
    • Vienya's raven familiar Moja is always found perched on her head when not flying.
    • Moja and Vienna also toy with the formula in that Vienna is mute, and only 'thinks' her statements, while Moja loudly voices them.
  • In Dragon Quest VII, the main character has a little lizard on his head in the artwork. It is rarely, if ever, mentioned in the game proper.
  • In Cave Story, during the Fetch Quest to retrieve Jenka's puppies, you carry the dogs on your head. Presumably because you need both hands free to use your guns.
  • In Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, Denny the fisherman has his pet bird, Kuu. Official art has Kuu on Denny's arm. Denny's game sprite has Kuu firmly on Denny's head. On Denny's dialog portraits, Kuu switches between his head and both shoulders.
  • Litchi's miniature panda Lao Jiu in BlazBlue spends most of his time living in her hair as a hair clip. He's also Litchi's means of tapping into the power of the Boundary and, by proxy, the cause of her degeneration due to that.
  • The plot of Jables's Adventure is set off by a squid named Squiddy perching on Jables's head, and informing the boy that he's The Hero. Squiddy remains on Jables's head for the rest of the game.
  • Two of Team Fortress 2's nice hats are of the Head Pet variety: Pyro's Triboniophorus Tyrannus (a green gelatinous creature), and the Alien Swarm Parasite (guess).
  • Sue in the first Grandia game has a pet named Puffy, which looks like a large butterfly, and while on her head it looks like a large hair bow.
  • Ōkami: He's not her pet, but Amaterasu's Celestial Envoy Issun spends most of his time bouncing on her head or nose.
  • Umi from Cthulhu Saves the World keeps a live starfish named Penta in her hair. In the first chapter's chat, Cthulhu asks her is it really the case, and gets unnerved when he hears the answer.
    "A live starfish in your hair... And people think I'm disgusting!"
  • In Dark Stalkers 3, Felicia has a move where she leaps on the opponents head. It doesn't really do anything other than look cute and funny.
  • In World of Warcraft Warlords of Draenor a small bird called Pepe in the player's garrison will ride their head if clicked on. Pepe proved so popular the developers added an achievement for killing the various Draenor dungeon and raid bosses with Pepe which awards the ability to summon Pepe at any time.
  • Dove from Crypt Of The Necrodancer has... well... a dove sitting on her head.
  • Similar to the Star Trek example mentioned in the Live-Action TV folder, Friendly Sniper Leliana from Dragon Age: Origins can regale the Player Character with a story about an Orlesian noblewoman who decided to wear live songbirds in her towering hairdo during a party. Leliana admits that the chirping was beautiful but the birds themselves were terrified, and terrified birds tend to have loose bowels. It's up to the player to pity either the birds or the noblewoman, or drop a sarcastic quip at the Orlesians' expense.
  • WarioWare Gold: Jimmy T. somehow has a cat jump into his afro without him noticing, until the women it attracted reveal they were taking pictures of it and not him as he'd assumed.
  • In the Puyo Puyo series, Sig, the resident bug geek, has a cute ladybug living on his hair most of the time. It's apparently his favorite one too. In 15th Anniversary and 7, he has a Japanese rhinoceros beetle in certain sprites and artworks.
  • Terraria:
    • One can buy a Rabbit Perch from the Zoologist as a hat. It's basically a rabbit that sits on the player's head.
    • The Finch Staff, which has any summoned baby finches rest in a nest on the player's head when not in use.
  • In Them's Fightin' Herds, some of the wearable "hats" in the overworld and Pixel Lobby are animals that can be worn on the player avatar's head, though it's a bit hard to tell if most of them are supposed to be living creatures or simply just stuffed. Among these head pets are plushie versions of a few of the characters.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, playing the Song of Birds near a wild dove will cause it to fly towards Link and land on his head.
  • The cat protagonist of Stray gets a boost through a high window from Clementine, who kneels to let the heroic feline jump onto her head and then stands up tall.
  • The Giant Maggot hat in Shadows Over Loathing. It's actually a pretty good hat, granting a +1 in all base stats (this is the kind of RPG where your highest skill test is 15), if also pretty gross.

    Visual Novels 
  • In Little Busters!, occasionally a cat Rin is holding will climb over her shoulders and on to her head. She usually responds by hissing and startling it off, though.
  • Ace Attorney:
    • Though he is not the owner, the Judge frequently finds himself serving as Taka the hawk's perch in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies.
    • Also, in the DLC case of Dual Destinies, Sniper the baby penguin lives in Herman Crab's hair, thinking that he's her mother.
    • In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, Ahlbi Ur'Gaid's dog Shah'do occasionally rides on his owner's head. He also imitates Ahlbi's expressions, making him an Empathy Pet too.
    • In The Great Ace Attorney, Husky Russkie sailor Bif Strogenov has strange, unexplained red marks on his face when first introduced. Their source becomes clear once he brings out his pet, a massive snake named Pirozhko that spends most of its scenes coiled around the man's head.
  • The Fruit of Grisaia: Michiru gains a cat like this on her route, after Yuuji manages to convinvce her that her idiot hair is cat repellant, it's actually attracts the thing.

    Web Animation 
  • Ching from Pucca is seldom seen without her pet chicken, Won, perched just over her bangs. She even gets into epic swordfights with Won seemingly undisturbed. The animated series shows what happens if Won ever leaves its perch on Ching's head... and it's not pretty.

    Webcomics 
  • Pirozhki from Kanon is referenced by the cat's namesake in MegaTokyo.
  • The head cat in Mac Hall. Specifically, it came from a Real Life event where during a convention, someone covertly placed a stuffed cat that resembled Pirozhki on Ian McConville's head and he went about for good amount of time completely oblivious to it.
  • In The Chapel Chronicles, Chapel's pet hedgehog, Rupert, occasionally is perched atop Chapel's big head of hair, such as Hedgehog Constitutional.
  • Dreamaniac: Jake's imaginary friend Whippy has a tendency to cling to his hair. Occasionally moves to arm or shoulder.
  • Happened at least once with Jeremy on Susan in El Goonish Shive. But maybe only in Filler Strips. That panel was a visual echo of Kamineko's appearance on Sakaki-san's head during the Azumanga Daioh opening sequence, which might be a Shout-Out or just a visual influence.
  • The protagonist of Real Life Fiction has a squirrel on top of her head about all the time.
  • Shortpacked!:
  • In Nerf NOW!!, Heavy Weapons Guy wears Baby Medic as a hat while delivering a message as a Scout. She seems perfectly happy with the arrangement.
  • On Page 701 of The Phoenix Requiem, a chicken appears on Petria's head for no discernable reason, and only for one panel. One can only speculate as to what was on AA's mind when she drew that...
  • Scandinavia and the World:
    • Sister America has a pet chihuahua that sits on her head and has a perpetually confused expression.
    • America usually has Canada on his head.
    • Norway sometimes puts an apparently living fish on his.
  • In Beyond the Canopy, Glenn acquires a crab on his head during his fight against the Caped Crustacean. He names him Orson Shelles.
  • In Murphy's Law, Serrin's familiar, a cat named Fir, often rides on her head.
  • In Our Little Adventure, Angelika's rat familiar Norveg sometimes climbs atop the sorceress's head, though Angelika hates it. Norveg usually does it to escape things that want to eat him on the ground.
  • The duck and pug in Sheldon love to sleep on grandpa.
  • In The Order of the Stick, Mr. Scruffy (Belkar's animal companion) has taken residence atop the enslaved Yukyuk's head and is using him as steed while the kobold is dominated. This is no doubt a comeuppance from Yukyuk's previous attempt to kill the cat.
  • Hamleto The Hamster: Hamleto, occasionally, on top of Alice's head. Notably to watch TV. With all the risks involved.
  • Comes up in one Dresden Codak strip. Kim finds herself on a world where almost every species participates in a symbiotic relationship. She finds a large ape-like species with hands that digs through ruins and trash heaps, but every time she tries to communicate with one it picks her up and puts her on its shoulder. She eventually figures out that the sentient species was an extinct hippo-like creature that would ride the apes.
  • In the MLP fan comic, Diamond and Dazzle, Diamond's kitty commonly rides on her head, often wearing her tiara in the process.
  • In Bugged Run, Elle often rides on her trainer's head while she is a Caterpie, starting within minutes of meeting each other.
  • Stand Still, Stay Silent: Kitty takes to doing this regularly in Adventure II, with a preference for Mikkel and Reynir as perches.
  • The frog who joins the protagonist's adventuring party in Blue Moon Blossom is very small, and is usually sitting on somebody's head. The bunny and koala are all seen riding on the dino's head at various points, too, because it's a rather large sauropod.
  • Unsounded: Boo spends a lot of time hanging out in Sette's hair or on Duane's head.

    Web Video 
  • Neuro-sama: Inverted. While Vedal, preferring to sit on Neuro's head, would be expected to be the pet given he's a turtle. However, given Neuro is Vedal's creation, it would be more accurate to say that Neuro is Vedal's pet.

    Western Animation 
  • Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies:
    • "A Bird In a Bonnet": Since Tweety is usually Granny's pet, although here he realizes that if he poses as a stuffed bird on the hat an older woman (Granny) buys at a hat store, he can escape pursuit from Sylvester ... or so he thinks, as that bad ol' puddy tat tries several tricks (all unsuccessful, natch) to get his meal. (Although Granny is unaware the bird is live throughout, Word of God has it she eventually found out ... and was tickled pink!!!)
  • Momo on Avatar: The Last Airbender can ride on Sokka or Aang's head.
  • Pabu from The Legend of Korra occasionally sits on Bolin's head, when he's not in Parrot Pet Position.
  • Invader Zim:
    • Perhaps parodied in one episode, where Zim's robot henchman GIR is shown to have a fondness for sleeping on its master's head. Zim does not appreciate this.
      Miss Bitters: You have head pigeons.
    • GIR also spends half an episode clinging onto the back of Dib's head as a "tracking device".
  • Wakfu:
    • Yugo's pet bird Az sometimes perches on the boy's hat.
    • Some Sadidas have a whole bird nest, complete with birds and chicks, atop their furry heads.
    • Encre Noire spends most of "A Fistful of Kamas" atop Ruel's head, though not really out of his choice. He sometimes rides his adopted daughter Elaine's head too.
  • In one episode of Willa's Wild Life, Willa has one of her rabbits sit on her head, to hide her bad hair during picture day.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • In one episode, Pinkie Pie's pet alligator Gummy is seen clinging to her head like a suckerfish (or possibly a brain slug).
    • The episode "Road to Friendship" shows that Princess Flurry Heart likes to be perched atop the head of her mother, Princess Cadance.
  • In Littlest Pet Shop (2012) "Nest Hats Craze", Russell sits on top of Blythe's head, inadvertently causing another trend.
  • On Wild Kratts, a lot of villain Donita Donata's "high fashion" designs seem to consist of a pose-beam-paralyzed animal plunked on top of somebody's head.
  • The Ed Eddn Eddy episode From Here to Ed, has Ed strap a turtle onto his head. Double D lampshades it.
    Edd: Ed. Do you know that there’s a turtle on your head?
    Ed: Yup.
  • The Owl House:
    • King, a creature about the size of a large cat, likes to climb on people's heads or shoulders and ride along with them. Eda's Hammerspace Hair seems to be a favorite, though he complains often that she should clean up in there.
    • Palismen sometimes choose to sit on their owners' heads, like Owlbert, who hides in Eda's hair on multiple occasions, and Flapjack, who perches on Hunter's head while he eats in "King's Tide".
  • In Craig of the Creek, Mortimor usually does this to Kelsey, oftentimes hidden in her hair bun.
  • On Hero Elementary, Jetman Jones's new animal sidekick, Bawk Rogers the chicken, prefers standing on Jetman's head to perching on his shoulder.

    Real Life 
  • Most pet parrots and parakeets. They're tree-dwellers, so they like to be as high up as they can. You may not like it though, since they're usually not housebroken...
  • Many pet rats also like to sit on their owners' heads. Rats, however, can be housebroken.
  • Chinchillas will also climb onto peoples' heads sometimes.
  • Iguanas also like to climb as high as possible and can end up on top of their owner's head.
  • Any decent-sized zoo souvenir shop is bound to have racks of baseball caps with plush or rubber toy animals attached to their tops, emulating this trope.
  • A girl and her cat have made it part of their nightly routine.
  • World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle reported the story of an American officer in North Africa who let a big lizard — eighteen inches from nose to tailtip — crawl up his arm to perch on his head. He spent the next three hours, including some thirty miles motorcycling, with this lizard riding his head, freaking out most people who saw it.
  • Some 18th century women's wigs were so very elaborate, they actually incorporated tiny birdcages in which small finches or canaries could be kept.
  • Inverted with trained elephants in Asia, which are customarily acclimated to humans sitting on their heads as well as the neck or back.
  • There's a photo of Neil Young with his pet sugar glider climbing on his head. This was back in the '60s when sugar gliders were not stylish.
  • This Egyptian Fruit Bat enjoyed riding on people's heads, which was rather abnormal for her species, as they are usually quite shy.
  • While anything older than a young kitten isn't usually prone to this on a regular basis, a cat's first reaction to a threat is usually to climb away from it. Sometimes, this means climbing onto your head. Unfortunately, most cats also have claws... ouch.
  • Koko the Gorilla sometimes invoked this, motioning for her keepers to put animals such as her pet cat on her head.

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