With the awesome new RPG elements introduced to explore, Ive felt a growing need to keep some of those adorable little critters you can encounter during your travels! Seeing how lions can interact with them in a friendly way now, it's be cute if Good karma lions could, during kind interaction, gain a critter's friendship and recieve it as an equipable item. Id personally simply die for those zorillas. <3 And they all already have a rather beautiful art, too!

So, here's my suggestion:
"Good" karma lions have a random chance to get a critter to "befriend" them after a Good karma interaction, getting it as an equipable item.
Something like "Zorilla sniffs your lion's paw and decides you're not dangerous! It decides to follow you to your territory."

Realism:
If you dont like the idea of a "pet", you can always consider it a scenery element, just like the infant cub item. It doesnt mean your lion's got a cub that never grows, it's just a scenery element - representing "one of your lion's cubs". Just like that, a small critter sitting somewhere could always represent "just a little critter your lion is passing by" that is living on your territory. I think it would be a nice customisation element for representing your lion's territory inhabitants.