That's meow-gic! Pets added in new Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery update

Attention, animal-loving witches and wizards! Developer Jam City is adding pets to Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery. The update, which goes live today, brings cat, owl, toad, and rat companions to the mobile role-playing game.

Players can choose one pet to join them on their travels around Hogwarts, with the critters showing up in locations around the castle and its grounds. Pets also provide a much needed energy boost for your character at semi-regular intervals — all you have to do is wait until you see your little buddy taking a nap and give it a quick tap.

Thankfully, you don’t have to choose between the four animal types as you can own one of each all at once, although only one can be equipped at a time.

You can check out what the pets look like in the images below. Sorry, dog lovers, it seems you’ll have to wait a bit longer to add a puppy pal.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery launched in April and quickly attracted attention for its aggressive monetization practices, including one infamous scene that makes you pay up (or wait for an hour or so) to save your youthful avatar from strangulation by a magical plant.

While things have improved slightly since launch thanks to new content drops, the pay-or-wait balance is still heavily skewed towards those willing to splash the cash and isn’t afraid to show it. You can read our review of the game here.

For those after more wizarding action on Android, Pokémon Go developer Niantic is working on a new game set in the Harry Potter universe with the same AR-centric gameplay style as its smash hit title based on Nintendo’s pocket monsters.