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Have a "Cast of Characters" line up at the beginning showing all your characters with their names and include the creature(s) in some typical pose such as sitting on their owner's shoulder. You can...
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#3: Attribution notice added
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44716 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
Have a "Cast of Characters" line up at the beginning showing all your characters with their names and include the creature(s) in some typical pose such as sitting on their owner's shoulder. You can also introduce dynamic by having an antagonistic character (if any) scowling or something at the creature on the other character's shoulder.