We've had pets for my whole life. I have a ton of stories.
My hamster, Hannah, was about two years old (pretty old in hamster terms) when she escaped from her cage. I was about 7, living on the second floor of an apartment with my family, and heartbroken. 9 days later, our downstairs neighbor, who we were friendly with, came upstairs and told dad that 'something was in her walls' and asked if he'd try and get it out (didn't want a dead mouse or rat stinking up the place). Dad cuts a small piece of drywall out, and *ta-da!* there's Hannah! She drank forever, and ate, and lived another year and a half. She never tried to escape again.
My old cat Mary Alice was an endless source of stories. I had not had hamsters in years, but in my first apartment, after my guinea pig Caleb died, I wanted another critter but couldn't deal with another guinea pig yet. Enter Houdini, the hamster that couldn't be caged. No matter how 'escape proof' the cage was, he'd find the weakness. Every single time he'd escape, Mary Alice (who was an 8 year old, 18 pound cat with all her claws and teeth) would round him up like he was an errant sheep, nudge him towards where I was, and then meow to tell me he was out again. Houdini would just wait for me to pick him up, and I'd drop him back in his cage. He died of old age before I ever found a cage that could hold him, but Mary Alice would always make sure he was OK.
We had two large, outdoor dogs when I was first married - Rocky, and Tootsie. Rocky was an older dog when we got married, and DP and DD had found her when DD was only about 3 (so Rocky was about 8 when we got married). She was a very smart, sweet dog. Tootsie was a very sweet dog, too, but dumb as a bag of hair. She was a puppy born at the humane society that we adopted when DD was about 12. Rocky was her 'helper dog' until she passed. Rocky told Tootsie when it was time to go to sleep, when it was time to go potty, when it was time to scratch on the back door for dinner, when to hide under the shed to get out of the rain and when it was necessary to ask to come in because it was too cold. We thought it was because Tootsie has imprinted on Rocky as her 'mommy', since Tootsie was still less than six months old when we got her. Nope. When Rocky died, and DD adopted Sammy (a huge hound mix) who was half her age, Tootsie expected him to tell her when to do things, too. Sammy didn't get it, but tried. Tootsie eventually developed an inoperable cancer and had to be put to sleep, but up to the day we did, she still was expecting other dogs to tell her when to do things - a perfect mix of trust, sweet, and dumb. She is missed.