Favorite and least favorite pets to collect

[Scottie81]

Just wondering, what pets did you all like collecting? I'm not talking about pets that you like having in your collection, I'm asking which pets you enjoyed the process you had to go through to obtain them. For instance, I love my Mechanical Panderan Dragonling because its so crucial to so many fights, but it's not like I enjoyed searching for it on the AH and clicking "buyout".

Pets I enjoyed collecting:
#1) Mailemental - I loved this sidequest. Getting the item to start the quest wasn't obvious, nor is it always up, but it's not like a spawn you have to camp for days. The quest itself takes you to some interesting places and then it all ends in a minigame that isn't too difficult. I thought about putting Ba'al here, but the secret finding stuff is a bit too obscure for me.
#2) Felclaw Marsuul - Just got this recently and it reminded me why I like pet collecting. Each boss with each family was a challenge. For most, I was able to look at their abilities and build a team that would win on the first attempt. Others took 2-4 tweaks to either my team or strat before I won. I needed to use a guide for 19 of the 180 fights (2 in Karkuun, 2 in the Antoran Wastes, and 15 in Mac'Aree...Mac'Aree was a bit overtuned).
3) Raiding with Leashes - This mainly applies to the TBC pets as I loved revisiting those old raids, but I've enjoyed it with the other xpacs as well. I know I can just buy these off the AH, but I actually like farming the old raids with a purpose.

Honorable mention to the pets unique to certain Legion Order halls. I felt like I really accomplished something getting an alt up high enough to get some of these.

Pets I did not enjoy:
1) All the pets from Gnomergan, Strat, and BRM - The first two dungeons were fairly easy, but after that, I just started using a guide after my first clear. Too much time is invested to get to the 7th or 8th fight and then wipe and have to start over. I prefer the achievements like Family Battler where you can just heal and try again immediately after failing.
2) Mini RaceZep - Still don't have this one as I haven't really sat down to try. Maybe I have PTSD from hitting so many balloons in FFX about 2 decades ago, but timed races just stress me out. I thought the Mailemental minigame was the right amount of challenge...not that easy the first time, but doable with a bit of practice. The DMF race is just tuned really tight.
3) Spectral Calf - Put something behind a gold wall. Fine, ok. Put something behind a rare spawn timer with days long cooldown. Fine, ok. Put it behind BOTH of these walls? This one wasn't difficult, but it sucked checking for the merchant constantly and then it hurt to click 'buy'.

Honorable mention to the Darkmoon Balloons. I don't mind grinding the faire for battle pets...but pets that can't battle but require daily quests? Just felt relieved to be done with them, not happy to get them.

[Melipets]

Favorites:
Unborn Val'kyr - I got this back when it was a much rarer spawn, and only one was up on the entire continent of Northrend at once. Weirdly it was fun flying around looking for it. Yes it was a grind, but I could sit in my college classes and fly my search route and still pay attention in class.
Mailemental - Same reason you mentioned. Cute quest!!
Sprite Darter Hatchling - I loved this quest line, back when that was the way to obtain it.
Fox Kit - another long grind, but as a skinner/lw I got plenty of mats while doing this grind so it actually helped me out
Gundrak Hatchling - similar to Fox Kit, I was able to skin the kills after the hatchling didn't drop. For literally years, I would stop by very occasionally, I would kill a couple hundred until someone else came to farm the area. Never got it to drop and eventually gave up. Didn't even attempt from the time Legion dropped until June 2019, I went on a whim and got the drop on my 7th kill! Pretty sure my heart stopped for a second.

Least favorite:
Vicious Broodling - Weirdly... as much as I enjoyed looking for the pets above, I hated this one. It was the last pet I needed for Broken Isles Safari and I could never seem to find it. I honestly didn't even want it other than to get the achievement because I think it's ugly. Then when I FINALLY found one, I got attacked by one of the demons in the area and it PULLED ME OUT of the pet battle. I was so mad, I aoe attacked, also killing the Broodling. I was FURIOUS!!!!
about a third the Raiding with Leashes 3-6 pets - honestly I just ended up buying a lot because it's dumb that you can still only run old raids once a week. With low-ish drop rates and bad luck, it just isn't fun, it becomes a chore.

[Papazol]

Pets I enjoyed... hmm, may be in this order:
1. Uuna. The best what happens with battle pets for a long time.
2. Disgusting oozeling for sure. Had it from vanila. Many and many ppl tried to dispell poison from me
3. Spectral tiger coub. Had to sell a lot pets on Illidan and wait for a long time before was able to buy it for reasonable price from AH.
4. Crawling claw. Uldum. PvP. Dig-dig-dig...
5. Celestial pets
and many more

Last ones -family battler series. Hate it.

[Rioriel]

Favorites:
Unborn Val'kyr - I got this back when it was a much rarer spawn, and only one was up on the entire continent of Northrend at once. Weirdly it was fun flying around looking for it. Yes it was a grind, but I could sit in my college classes and fly my search route and still pay attention in class.

Absolutely my first thought. It's this kind of thing that I really enjoy later in an expansion when I've got Rio to max and I'm just pottering around finishing questchains and waiting for queues. Something that's super satisfying.

Must have clicked on about one hundred billion Cheetah Cubs (?) or was it some Gazelle fawn in Durotar trying to find a rare one to catch. Was before we were all drowning in stones. How I'd look back and laugh at myself now

[Daned]

Favorites:

Uuna - With a wonderful, secret, and story-filled questline, this was by far my favorite pet to collect!
Mr. Grubbs - I enjoyed the characters in the quest-line that leads up to getting this pet
Rascal-Bot - I was surprised when I got the Schematic as a world-drop. Being an engineer I focused on making it right away. It was also fun because I was a Lost fan and it was a clear reference to Bad Robot Productions
Singing Sunflower - I really liked doing the Plants vs. Zombies mini-game

Worst to Collect:
Mini Tyrael - I got it when it first came out, but I had to pay cash for it.
Any rare-drop-from-a-boss pet - I never get them to drop for me and end up buying them on the AH

[Gráinne]

Favourites:
- any wild pet, especially one with conditions.
- Celectial tournament pets

Non-favourite: any pet that drops from anything.

Least favourite:
- any pet that drops with a low drop rate from anything
- any pet earned other than by battling