Snowy (French: Milou) is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Snowy is a white Wire Fox Terrier who is a companion to Tintin, the series' protagonist. He debuted on 10 January 1929 in the first installment of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, which was serialised in Le Petit Vingtième until May 1930. Snowy's conception was inspired in part by a Fox Terrier at a café Hergé used to frequent. Milou, Snowy's original French name, was the nickname of Hergé's first girlfriend (although Snowy is male).