As you move on to bigger monsters, you rapidly discover that wearing leather against a bear doesn't work too well.
![Wink](images/smilies/wink.gif)
Your pet is quite valuable if you learn how to let it aggro the monsters before you shallack it with arrows. It's a heck of a lot easier to raise a cat and catch a fish every now and again to keep it's health all the way up than it is to tromp from the graveyard every five minutes.