Gary
the Snail is SpongeBob's pet snail, although his behavior in
several aspects resembles a housecat. 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 intelligent and literate,
although, being an animal, he lacks the communication skills to
convey this. In addition, he keeps cool under pressure and has a
solution for every problem.
Since SpongeBob
was a 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.