I used to love watching Gentle Ben when I was a child and I honestly couldn't understand why my parents laughed when I said I wanted a pet bear! It made perfect sense to me (I think I was about five at the time) and the fact that Bears are generally quite scarey never really occurred to me.
When I was a little older I changed my mind though and decided that the coolest pet ever would be a Timber Wolf! It wasn't quite a crazy as the bear idea as my Dad had a friend who had a Wolf/Dog hybrid who was having pups (cubs?) but again my parents were mean and wouldn't let me have one ... thank Goodness!