Familiar or Familiar equivalent for a Binder [3.5]

[Bad Wolf]

Is there any way to get one for a single class binder? I'm looking for a small-ish creature that is at least somewhat intelligent.

[Flickerdart]

Leadership is pretty much your only move here. Beguilers (race of squirrel dudes from Shining South) can be recruited both as a cohort and an Improved Familiar.

[Kazyan]

If you don't want Share Spells or anything fancy, just a little intelligent creature that hangs around you...ask your DM if you can go capture a low-end monster for the job. My immediate thought is to go into one of the nearby forests you'll find in most settings and look for a Petal (MMIII), since they have several qualities that would make them a good fit for this. Though notorious as a powerful LA+2 (cohort) race, getting a stock one from the forest won't actually change much unless your DM has allergies to good Hide modifiers.

[Thurbane]

Not really the same as a familiar, but there's always Wild Cohort (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a).

Again, not really much like a traditional familiar, but there's also Item Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm).

Maybe a Figurine of Wondrous Power (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#silverRaven) as a Legacy Item?

If you were willing to dip into an arcane class and then go Anima mage, it would be a lot easier to pick up an actual familiar.