Quadropedled subsidiaries unite!

Fine, universe. I give in. No longer am I Team Spot; I've switched to Team Porthos. Sorry, Data, I still love your poem to your cat, but the beagle won me over re: most favourite ST pet. (Livingstone the fish was never in the running.) And I'm not even a dog person, I usually always prefer cats. But did Spot get a whole episode centred on its well being? Spot did not. 'Twas the big eyes that did me in. And now I have to retrospectively angst about Scotty, the bastard, and what he did to Porthos in the Rebootverse! (I mean, given dog life spans, chances are this was a Porthos descendant rather than Porthos Prime, but you know, a transporter accident, and Porthos (Prime?) never seen again, this makes me worried. Because precedent.

...incidentally, I wonder whether we'll ever see Merkin the Tribble again on Discovery?