What kind of animal could a pirate have, besides a parrot?

Just a silly question for a late weekend night. We always see pirates with parrots. Where does that come from, anyways? Did pirates usually have parrots as pets? What if the pirates traveled to a place the poor parrot couldn’t hack? That’s not really the point, although information about the whole pirate/parrot thing and where it comes from could be cool; I just read that parrots were used as investment in case a pirate was hurtin’ for cash but rather, what other animal would be neat for a pirate to have?
I’m thinking maybe a hyper little monkey that climbs all over its owner all day, a creepy raven that just perches there and stares, or a really old and battle scarred, tough ass fluffy cat. Maybe a pitbull. What about Vikings? holy crap I just learned Vikings actually used bears as household pets

Apparently pirates kept assorted animals with them for practical reasons, but let’s go for the romanticized pirate approach; what’s a cool animal companion they could have besides a parrot? Not that I have anything about parrots, mind you. You know, in case someone decides to lay down the law, and ignore my skull flag.