i'm very interest of this idea

cats (<3)
dogs
rodends (

kill them)
cats can be wandering around the claim zone passing up to all objects like stone walls or houses... and only slow who try to pass through them (it may be very raging a little cat just sitted in front of your house... and you can't still enter

)
rodends can appear randomly moving in the claim and also hide after 2-3 seconds... they can be catched (if you are fast) or they disappear somewhere.
then the claimstone can inform you of how many rodends there are in your claim (just estimate it between 2-3 much or less) and how many cats are placed in the claim... so every container with some food (every food has a % of being wasted by rodends... if is cooked and very tasty it will be eat in 1 day

) will be affected with a "movement" code, wich means the rodends move first where there is much food and are mainly near this area... and the food stored away can be safe (for now) but when the food will be low they star migrating (it must be a 2-3 hours countdown after each pisition update). also the rats can move whenever they want (a bigger claim just need much time to walk for a colony of rats) but have a slow speed.
being up to 10 rats for every man still living (or having leanto) in the claim will get the pest debuff very easly to take... and very hard to heal (creating a profession like "wandering doctor" for some support players?)
the cats simply low this estimation of rats population 2-3 at day (lazy cats xD)
if cats will remain without rats to eat it will claim food or will flee in the wilderness

, there can be a moveable object (like plants plots) wich can be fulled with meat or fish, like a compost bin (i LOVE killing deers just to compost them

)
the dogs are good but require a ton of time and training to be operative in jobs

so you can find a pack of wolves (not less 5) that attack every prey they see (man, cats, rabbits, deers and so on...) and acts like a group, that's mean attacking 1 will engage all the squad! so mad for a newbie!
wolves must be not so hard to kill (the half of a simple deer) and will KO when defeated... but get up after 2-3 hours furius and ready to bite your hand

making a special "cage" where store wolves you want to train? every day you can give them some meat and try (like fishing

) to raise their stats... a loyal dog can be useful for guarding the claim when a near-craziness dog can be perfect for wardog (point and let him run... he will make mess of enemies

)
that are my ideas! wtb?
sorry if i use a bad grammar... i tried to explain my opinion ^_^