just curious - is there a limit on how many pets I can own?

Yeah, for all accounts it's 10 pets, but you can increase that in various ways such as paying CSC or buying more slots in the millionaire center. there are a couple other ways to get them too.

I'm pretty sure the maximum overall number is 40 (including the slots from the MC, and the cash shop...)

so if I wanted - I could buy more pet slots from M C - and have as many as I wanted? Thx :)

Extra Pet Slots Breakdown 0 from pet slot plushies and early totems (soft max 10) 0 from pet slot loyalty totems 0 from new slot additions (max 20) 0 from the Millionaire Center (max 5) 2 from awards and prizes

found on this page

so you get a loyalty totem every year starting on your second anniversary of when you joined, those are unbounded, so every year you can get a new pet slot. there are 5 available in the MC, each time you buy one, the cost increases, but you can only get 5 there. you can purchase 20 with CSC. then we've stated getting them occasionally during site events, we've only had two so far.

It's limited within bounds - the 'special' extra pet slots that can break the soft cap are pet totems, which you can choose after your 2nd anniversary (and every year after that) and within special site events that allow participants to get an extra slot. Right now, the current max that you personally can reach is an additional 35 to your 10 (so 45 max).

can you still buy those? I thought that category was just there for the older users.

Yup, you can. I joined in May '12 which I think was after that was changed? I'm not 100% sure but I know I never used to buy slots except during Black Friday back when they went on sale, and this is what my page looks like:

ah it must fill the first 10 first then move onto the new slot additions. that's not exactly clear from that page. that is good to know, thanks :P

I thought it was 5 with a regular account and then 10 with gold... or has that changed?

That was changed to make things simpler, all accounts are 10 pets now :)

Ah, ok. Before I went on hiatus, it was 5 then 5 more with gold.

the news post about it is here it was actually longer ago than I thought :O

Huh. I like the pet leash being a gold account perk now.