Shao May

Shao May is a panda born far below the normal size for her kind, an oddity that leaves her small enough to perch on a shoulder. Because of this she is repeatedly taken for a cat throughout Amestris, a mix-up that frustrates both the panda and her owner. She is rarely apart from May, often copying her expressions and poses so closely that the two seem to move as one.

Adorable on the surface, she is in truth ferocious in defense of May, sinking her teeth into anyone who ventures too near, Yoki and Edward among her victims. Scar is a rare exception she leaves unbitten, having taken to him, while she outright dreads Alphonse because of his enormous metal frame. Beyond her temper she is unusually clever, showing reasoning closer to a human's than to the other animals in the cast, a trait the series often plays for laughs.

Born in Xing and cast aside as a frail cub on account of her size, she was raised as family by May, the seventeenth princess of Xing, forging an unusually deep bond with the girl. When May crossed into Amestris seeking the secret of immortality to save her clan, Shao May came along, and the pair eventually fell in with Scar. During the Elrics, Ling Yao, and Mustang's scheme to capture a homunculus, the panda was separated from May and picked up by Alphonse, who mistook her for a cat. Her attempts to bite through his armor failed, earning his body her wary respect, and she rode his shoulder into the battle with Gluttony and down into Father's lair.

May and Scar tracked her to that underground hideout, and after the two were reunited and taken to Dr. Knox for safety, they set off north again. Because Shao May stands out so plainly, the Elrics used the search for a black-and-white cat as a clue to find May, which led to the girl being spotted and pursued toward the Briggs mountains. On the Promised Day the panda revealed her own touch of alkahestry, healing an injured May, and she appears at the bottom of the Elric family portrait many years later.