It should only be realistic that a pet would defend his/her owner if he/she was attack, especially if that animal is a magical animal! So Wizard 101 should allow a wizard's pet to perform attacks (just the minor spells like Minor Fireball for fire wizards or Minor Iceshard for ice wizards). It wouldn't matter what color it is, but what school you go to, that determines the attack it does.
The only thing I've noticed about my pet, she has grown bigger. No extra cards doesn't do anything but fly around.
Now if you wanna talk about ageless try minions, I get level 1 minion that throws the same spells everytime, usually against the same school of the target, can we say useless? Took all my minions out due to this "crazy problem" with the minion. I'd rather have a empty spot than something that neither gets better or fights smarter.