I'm not a gold account member and wondered if I chose the extra pet slot, is this permanent?

yes, but you can only fill six slots without a GA

so, if you had more than six pets, you couldn't abandon and adopt others without a GA.

right now, I have 41 slots, but can only fill 36. I need a GA to fill the others

Thank you :)

I've filled 5 pet slots with a regular account, 5 more with a GA, and then 4 using Loyalty Box slots that I also activated GAs to fill. Could I fill another slot via Cash Shop or Loyalty Box without having to activate a GA?

nah, you need a GA if you want to add a slot right now.

Damn, thanks for the info though.