What was the shopkeeper's mount/pet supposed to be?

Kinda missed the Q&A about the new rift, but still wanted to clear some things up about the old one before it's too late.

There's some kind of creature lazing about just north of blue side's shopkeeper, between two torches in the base. (Would totally post a screenshot if it didn't keep showing as a black screen as soon as I pasted it). Was wondering what it was about. Was it a mount? Was it a pet? Was it some new race that might have been built on but was just kind of left there in a sort of neat way of show-don't-tell?