Gary the Snail

Garold "Gary" Wilson, Jr. is SpongeBob SquarePants's pet sea snail and the most seen pet in the series. He lives with SpongeBob in his pineapple house on 124 Conch Street. Gary is voiced by Tom Kenny and first appears in the pilot episode, "Help Wanted." He is a domesticated house pet with similar mannerisms to a cat, most notably his "meow" sound, as snails are the underwater equivalent to cats in the show. It has been suggested that SpongeBob has had Gary ever since he was a young boy. The episode "Treats!" reveals that Gary was adopted by SpongeBob. In "Plankton's Pet" SpongeBob reveals to have bought Gary at the animal shelter. Gary was created as a minor joke character that would appear in the background of SpongeBob's bedroom, just like SpongeBob's pet scallop Shelley. However, as the series progressed, Gary developed a personality of his own beyond just saying "meow." He was eventually added to the show's Main Model Pack on March 22, 2000 and became one of the ten main characters.