Marland T. "Ren" Höek and Stimpson J. "Stimpy" Cat, created by John Kricfalusi, are the title characters in the Nickelodeon animated series The Ren & Stimpy Show, and its 2003 reboot Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon". Kricfalusi created the characters during his stay at Sheridan College and they first appeared on film in the pilot episode "Big House Blues". Ren is a scrawny, emotionally unstable, and sociopathic "Asthma Hound" Chihuahua, and his best friend Stimpy is a dim-witted, good-natured Manx cat. The show portrays their wacky, bizarre, and often surreal adventures. Characters Ren Höek Marland T. "Ren" Höek is a scrawny "asthma-hound" chihuahua. Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman of Animation World Magazine described Ren as scrawny, dyspeptic, and violently psychotic, who loses his mind occasionally in a cumulative process resulting in him becoming, in Goodman's words, a "screaming klaxon, neon-pink eyes dilating into twin novae inches above his jagged, monolithic teeth." Andy Meisler of The New York Times described Ren as "adventurous", "intelligent", and "emotionally brittle". Ren has a fairly long, rat-like, pink tail. However, in the first two seasons, Ren's tail constantly disappeared and was even docked by George Liquor in the season 2 episode "Dog Show", while getting Ren and Stimpy both ready for an upcoming dog show (even though Stimpy is a cat) although it continued to appear afterwards in the episode, as well as episodes afterwards. This was because during production of 1990's Big House Blues, John had to animate the toilet scene leading to the "Big Sleep" freakout, as he tried to mix limited animation with smooth tidbits and wanted Ren to move sloply, his tail was a pain to animate, later on he swore to not animate a tail again. After season 2, Ren's tail had a rare form of continuity throughout the show, not even appearing at all in most episodes. In most of the episodes, Ren's ambition is to develop huge pectoral muscles. In the season 3 episode "Ren's Pecs", that is accomplished with the help of Stimpy. His wrestling name is "Mad Dog Höek". Kricfalusi originally voiced Ren in a manner that he describes as "a bad imitation of Peter Lorre." Billy West said that he auditioned to play Ren; the creators of the series believed that having West—who was also voicing the title character in fellow charter Nicktoon Doug at the time—voice both Ren and Stimpy would give him too