Sandy Cheeks is a fictional character in the Nickelodeon cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants. She is known to be an intelligent, scientific, anthropomorphic squirrel who resides in Bikini Bottom and is featured as a close friend of SpongeBob SquarePants, though whether or not their friendship contains some romantic aspects is up for interpretation. She is from Texas and it is for this reason that she is heard speaking in a stereotypical Texan accent, and is proud of her home state which is frequently brought up throughout the course of the series.[1] She lives in a bubble-like dome under sea that traps air in, so she can continue to live and breathe. This, of course, is a creation attributed to her knowledge in science. She must wear a deep sea dive suit when underwater with a helmet on in order to breathe, and vice versa when SpongeBob, Patrick, or any other sea creatures visit her tree-dome.[2] Sandy is able to live in Bikini Bottom as a professional scientist because she is apart of a research project funded by three land-based chimpanzees. These chimpanzees make a physical appearance in the fourth-season episode "Chimps Ahoy". Sandy has been shown to possess a number of tough, tomboyish character traits and interests; she is skilled at karate and frequently enjoys practicing it with SpongeBob, in which she tends to most often win; she is also shown to be an excellent bodybuilder,[3] is a rodeo champion,[4] and possesses extraordinary scientific skills and can construct complex inventions.[5] While Sandy is normally portrayed as kind, helpful, and understanding, she has been shown to possess a vindictive side too.[1] In "Texas", she violently attacked SpongeBob and Patrick when they insulted her native land several times, while in "Band Geeks" she stuck Patrick up a trombone and later tried to do the same thing with a trumpet when he kicked her twice.