| Tablewalker |
You might try the Book of Familiars by Troll Lord Games. They have alternate rules for feats that allow all classes to have a familiar. The fighter familiar flavor text shows an example town guardsman who wishes he had his dead dog familiar back to help catch cutpurses. Barbarians can take special bestial mounts, bards can have muse-like Fey familiars, etc.
Another option is simply taking ranks in Handle Animal and buying a critter and teaching it some tricks. This wouldn't give the Beastmaster mojo of seeing through the tiger's eyes. However, you can teach it tricks and a general purpose. You can take 4 ranks (a +1 to Intelligence can give you these points, as can the extra 1st level skill bonus if you are human). So let me try to lay this out in bullets.
o Handle Animal (Ftr class skill) Rank 4
o Human race or +1 Int if needed to get skill points for "free"
o Buy a guard dog for 25gp
o High Cha helps with Handle Animal skill
o Skill Focus[Handle Animal] as maybe feat, especially if Human
o At future levels, attempt to train more fearsome animals
I hope this helps.