SpongeBob SquarePants

Garald Betram "Gary" Snail II is a Tritagonist character in the Nickelodeon animated TV show SpongeBob SquarePants, which first aired on May 1, 1999. In the television series, Gary is SpongeBob's loyal pet, although his behavior in several aspects resembles a snail. As revealed in "Rule of Dumb", Gary is the rightful king of Bikini Bottom and is related to Patrick. Gary is shown to be very bored and massivly cheeky, although, being a pet, he lacks the communication skills to convey this. In Gary's dream in "Sleepy Time", he is able to talk, has a humanoid body, and resides in a massive library.

Since SpongeBob was a little boy, he has taken the ownership of Gary. Gary is an intelligent, fully domesticated snail. His intelligence shines through in the fact that he has more intelligent solutions to SpongeBob's dilemmas than SpongeBob himself. Gary tends to disagree with some of SpongeBob's ideas, and usually makes an effort to warn him. Gary is generally shown to find SpongeBob oblivious, ignorant and annoying, yet still willingly tolerates him (probably due to the fact that SpongeBob takes care of him), and in many episodes,it is shown that he cares a lot about SpongeBob.

In "Have You Seen This Snail?" Gary runs away from SpongeBob when he fails to feed him because SpongeBob was addicted to the official Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy Paddle Ball Set. Gary wanders aimlessly in search of a home, venturing into the dangerous inner city, until he is found by an elderly woman who pampers and overfeeds him, and renames him Ms. Tuffsy. However, he eventually discovers her horrible secret: she is a snail killer (he is told this by another, 1/2-dead snail in a parody of Hansel and Gretel, along with possibly 100 empty snail shells he finds in a closet)! Gary narrowly escapes from her, and upon learning of SpongeBob's desperate efforts to find him, realizes that SpongeBob does indeed love him and has learned the error of his ways, and goes back to him.

Gary speaks mostly with cat-like meowing (except on one occasion, where he roared instead of meowing), although SpongeBob is shown to understand what Gary is saying, which is shown to be a very rare trait in the show, in comparison to the other main characters. Gary has only been heard speaking English three times: Once in "Sleepy Time" in his own dream, once in "The Secret Box" where he says "Err...No.". The third time was in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, when Gary is under the control of Plankton's mind-controlling bucket helmets, he chants "Meow [[Plankton]]."