
avr |

A stone familiar is a literal backup for your spells. You could even do without a familiar entirely.
IIRC there's a handful of witch archetypes which lose the familiar one way or another. Ley line guardian is a spontaneous caster for example.

Latrans |

I’m partial to the Mirror Witch archetype since it trades only the familiar, so no losing any hexes or such, for one that act like an intelligent magic item so most AoE spells won’t affect it if you’re carrying it. I also find the abilities it grants are generally more useful than the animal familiars with the exception of the bonus granted by some animals.
And on the small risk of it getting stolen, carry a scroll of Irriseni Mirror Sight to help track the thief down.
Alternately, if you need to have an animal and the worst happens, if you have an ally that can cast Raise Animal Companion, or carry a scroll to UMD. The spell alone cost just 1000gp of diamond dust.

Decimus Drake |

The Beast-Bonded archetype gets the Twin Soul ability at level 10. The Ley Line Guardian changes the witch to a spontaneous spell caster without a familiar. Archetypes such as the Ashiftah, Bonded Witch, Cartomancer or Gravewalker replace the witch's familiar with an object that might be easier to protect.

LordKailas |

Gravewalker turns their familiar into a doll. It has an added side benefit that it lets you hit enemies with touch spells like shocking grasp as a ranged attack.
There's also the Companion Figurine feat. It specifically states that if your familiar is killed it just reverts back to it's figurine state. The only downside is that your familiar can only be an animal every so often.

blahpers |
4 people marked this as a favorite. |

Make friends with another witch. Have your familiar teach their familiar all of your spells.
Addendum: If you do this and your familiar dies, remember to have your replacement familiar arrive with completely different spells. You basically paid 500 gp per witch level for two new spells per spell level, so you might as well take those lemons and hex them into delicious lemonade. Heck, in some cases murdering (or simply "losing") your familiar may be the cheapest and most readily available method of filling out your squawking spellbook.