Totally agree with the pet getting stuck... Was an issue before release and was never fixed. I think the petting helps to improve your pets mood if you keep up on it, like pet it once a day. For instance, I went without petting my aphid for a while, it went from happy to meh, started petting it every so often, the mood improved. Also, it was stuck under water so I was going to remove its gear and see if it would just die. Noticed that reduced the mood as well, so it seems having gear on the pet affects moods also (didn't die in the water, just stays stuck there). The entire pet thing seems like more of just a pain right now honestly until they improve the system.