Ways to get an Animal Companion

[kardar233]

I'm laying out the backbone of a Gestalt character and I want him to have an animal companion, but I'm not fond of any of the standard ways.

In what ways other than going Ranger or Druid can you get an animal companion?

[Dumbledore lives]

There is the Beastmaster prestige class from Complete Adventurer, which at first level gains one animal companion and later on gets 2 more. There is also the wild cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) feat from the web.