I'd say the best way to get pets would be by going to the little search bar at the top (you can see it when you go onto the world map page) and then searching for pets for sale. If you're looking for a theme, I HIGHLY reccommend making sure that you press YES on the Include Purebred? or whatever it is, offspring from themed pets is very often a LOT cheaper than an original theme pet (usually a captured pet or from an egg that was won in an event). If you want anything from me, let me know, I'm cheap! : )

I don't recommend capturing pets, unless it's something really pretty. I wasted THOUSANDS on traps when I first started, thinking it was the only way to get pets.

For gold, you can accept tasks when you get to the Umbra Forest, but I've found out that you really only start making good money off of them when you've finished the entire Umbra Forest (because you then have all five tasks available) and by then you'll have Astril's Vale open, which has even more tasks. I just unlocked that region and I am JUST NOW making a decent amount of money. Also, missions are good too, but....my pets often fail the higher level ones that earn more money, so they don't really do me much good lol.

I'm pretty sure a purple gene means it has both a visible trait AND a carried trait there (the visible trait is dominant to the other one, so you can't see it). The little letters next to it (example: Zolnixi (AB) Butterfly Wings) show what trait it is. If it's just something like (AA) Butterfly Wings, then it's only the one you see, and there is no other carried trait in that slot. For (AB) Butterfly Wings, go to the generator, and in the drop-down box for that trait slot, you can see letters next to each trait. (AA) is Butterfly Wings, and (BB) is Comet Moth Wings, so your pet has the genes for both Butterfly Wings and Comet Moth Wings in that slot! (Sorry if this is kinda confusing, I just figured this stuff out about a week ago, I'm still a noob XD)

Edit: I'm sorry, I actually didn't look for other people's responses before I wrote all this, so this is probably pretty repetitive. Sorry!

Thank you so much everyone for your responses! They're super helpful especially mission types and the charts (I'm a visual person and that makes everything so much less confusing).
I really appreciate you guys taking the time to respond ^^

I'd love a pet please! Thank you for offering :D
Everyone here is so friendly and helpful ^^

Some additional questions that popped into my mind ^^;

Are there ways to acquire diamonds besides buying them? I just realized you need them for more stables o.o

How do events work? I realized I joined right after an event happened and I'm not sure if it's because there isn't one going on right now but is it pretty straightforward? Will I just understand it when one happens/is it pretty self-explanatory?

I'd love a pet thank you for offering (though you have me worrying over my stable space now XD)
Thanks for all the tips and the guide!

Sorry if I wasn't supposed to ping you
I feel bad that I keep pinging everyone so much so I tried consolidating responses but I'm still not sure how multipinging works >.>;

You can buy diamonds from the curency exchange tho at your level it may be better to just expend your tabs instead. During some events and all festivals the price of a stable is lower at 400 diamonds, it may not sound like mutch but it does help alot and it is worth waiting for. ^-^

Np! Choose a piar form my prfile :)

I see. Thank you! :D
I don't know -100 sounds like a lot to me
Do events happen once a month?

Thank you! :D
Do I just choose from the ones under your breeding tab?