You know that they can die permanently is exactly the thing that attaches you to them. That way you really take care of them and it makes for some thrilling situations where your pet nearly died when you had no potion left or something. It may also force the player to decide if he is using the revive potion himself, or for the pet.
That is a really good point, I did not think about it this way. Consequences are definitely a good thing!
The most badass thing would be if you could go to a necromancer, who resurrects your dead pet, which then becomes an undead version of the old pet xD, but I will probably am not going to push it that far.
That would be awesome :D