Joe eventually settles on a name for the lamb: Skipper. It’s cute enough without an explanation; but when you find out Joe has named Skipper in honor of his deceased Doberman Pinscher, Gilligan? It’s even cuter. Skipper might be the polar opposite of Gilly the dog, but she’s no less important in Evie’s life. While Gilly died defending her owner from walkers, Skipper will eventually provide milk and cheese to her new family, making her just as, if not more, useful in the long run. You can’t fight if you have nothing to eat, and cheese snob survivors will go crazy for a buttery Manchego, a pungent Roquefort, or some salty, crumbly feta.
Tabitha the Goat
When Morgan stumbles across Eastman’s cabin in The Walking Dead season 6’s “Here’s Not Here,” he doesn’t follow a trail of smoke or catch sight of a working whirligig or scarecrow. What keys Morgan (Lennie James) into the presence of civilization is a domesticated goat hanging out near a cabin. That cute brown goat is Tabitha, and like every other goat, she looks extremely huggable.
Not only is Tabitha a companion animal (and zombie alarm) for Eastman (John Carroll Lynch, playing successfully against type), she’s an important tool of Morgan’s recovery. By taking care of Tabitha, Morgan is able to push aside his trauma and focus on the needs of another living, breathing thing. Plus, she’s Eastman’s key for a lifetime of chèvre. Unfortunately, Tabitha’s time on the show is short-lived, as she is attacked and eaten by zombies despite Eastman and Morgan’s best attempt at security. She’s buried in a place of honor next to her owner Eastman, reuniting owner and would-be cheese-monger with his beloved pet goat.
Carl’s Deer
One of the crucial pieces of The Walking Dead‘s second season takes place in the very first episode, “What Lies Ahead.” In that episode, Carl (Chandler Riggs) goes with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Shane (Jon Bernthal) to look for Sophia (Madison Lintz) after she got separated from the group during the chaos of a walker herd attack. They don’t successfully find Sophia, but they do spy a buck wandering through the forest. Shane wants to shoot it, but Rick stops him, allowing Carl to approach the deer almost to the point of touching him.
The deer is a beautiful, majestic creature, healthy and hearty, and a sign of nature’s ability to repair itself in only a few short months without human intervention. Then, unfortunately, humans intervene, and a rifle shot not only gravely injures Carl, it also kills the buck in the process. Technically, it’s the other way around, since poor Otis (Pruitt Taylor Vince) was trying to shoot the deer and didn’t even see Carl, but Carl recovers and the deer, sadly, does not. Carl’s deer goes the way of the deer in season 1’s “Tell It to the Frogs” and the terrible CGI deer from “Say Yes” and the better CGI/stuffed deer from season 10’s first episode, “Lines We Cross.”
Violet the Pig
Poor Carl has the worst luck with animals. First, he gets shot while admiring a deer. And then, while living in the prison in season 3’s opener, “30 Days Without an Accident,” his pet pig dies. Violet had been raised from a piglet by Carl, and despite her being a food animal, Carl still was close enough to the pig to name her and notice changes in her personality. Violet isn’t acting right, and Rick, unhelpfully, admits he doesn’t know why the pig is ill. He tells Carl to give her a wide berth until she’s feeling better. She never ends up feeling better.
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