When I was around 11 or 12, I created a character called Hamilton, who was a hamster private detective. Here are a couple of original pics of him from that age:

http://www.shadowrat.com/art/hammy1.jpg
http://www.shadowrat.com/art/hammy2.jpg

I still don't really know what spurred this character's creation, or why he was a hamster when I've never had any particular bond to them. But he lived in the 1920's prohibition era chicago, and everyone in his world was some kind of rodent/small furry pet that had either escaped captivity, or was just naturally occuring suburband wildlife. Lots of rats, mice, some guinea pigs, a chinchilla or two, gerbils, even a ferret.
You get the idea.
All the characters are their true species size, and wear clothes only to display their occupation, at least, thats how I remember thinking of it.

Hamilton is fat, lazy, demotived, unhealthy, intolerant and lonely. His age would be equivilant to a guy in his mid 40s, and he used to be a good detective when he was younger. I think there was something about his partner being killed (presumably that little white thing in the first picture) which made him turn into a slob.
I seem to remember he'd been shot once, stabbed twice and had 2 heartattacks :/

So, I've recreated him, and shall create a whole new bunch of characters around him and the world he lives in. A lot of the rats will be based on my real life pet rats, most likely.
The hard part about this guy was keeping him close to his original design, without having him clash with Kyuss. Fat, lazy, orange rodent character is something you can't really have twice without some degree of over-lap.
Their characters are actually very different, but on first glances, I wanted to avoid having people think he was Kyuss :P