A short, neckless raccoon sprinted across a Seattle lawn in mid-July, ducked into some shrubs, and accidentally became a celebrity. Millions of people have now watched the clip. Jimothy, as he has been christened by the internet, remains blissfully unaware of any of it.

• A video from a July 13 sighting has pulled in more than 6.3 million views on Instagram.
• A veterinary expert says short spine syndrome is a fair guess, though the raccoon has never been examined.
• Wildlife specialists say the kindest response from fans is distance, not snacks.

How One Backyard Sighting Snowballed

Kiana Hall was out with her partner when something small and low to the ground darted out from under a parked car. Their first thought was that it might be a cat. It wasn’t. What emerged was a raccoon built like a furry loaf of bread, with almost no visible neck and a body that looked compressed from front to back. Hall filmed it, posted it, and gave the animal a name that just felt right to her.

The clip took off fast. Within days, other Seattle residents started coming forward with their own footage. Ben Trammel posted videos on July 16 of what looks like a much younger version of the same raccoon, saying the little guy was born in a neighbor’s cedar trees to a raccoon family that had been around for years. He described seeing the animal almost daily for months, small and clumsy, with his mother and siblings looking out for him, keeping him from falling and sometimes carrying him.

What Might Be Happening With His Spine

Nobody has examined Jimothy or confirmed a diagnosis. That matters, and it’s worth repeating. Marcie Logsdon, a professor at Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, said it’s very fair to suspect short spine syndrome based on how he looks. She also estimated he was probably born this past spring. His sex is unknown too, so the “he” everyone uses is a guess.

Short spine syndrome is a rare congenital disorder. During the fetal stage of development, the vertebrae fail to turn from cartilage into proper bone. That soft, pliable cartilage compresses over time, and the spine fuses and shortens. The result is an animal that appears to have no neck at all, with a torso that looks squished. Experts still don’t know why it happens.

Whether it hurts depends on the individual. Nobody knows how the condition affects raccoons specifically. In dogs, some live active, happy lives with little or no discomfort, while others develop nerve compression or disc problems that cause real pain. Logsdon noted that many domestic animals with short spine syndrome live close to a normal lifespan, even when the deformity is severe. Judging by the video, Jimothy moves quickly and seems to be handling life fine.

A Fandom That Made Its Own Rules

The reaction online has been affectionate and, refreshingly, a little protective. A subreddit dedicated to Jimothy went up on July 16 and had roughly 6,100 weekly visitors the very next day. Its description gives him a mock royal title as king of Seattle and the raccoons, plus raider of trash bins. Cartoonist Matthew Inman, better known as The Oatmeal, drew a police sketch of him.

What stands out is the community’s rule against sharing Jimothy’s location. Members post sightings, thoughts, memes, and fan art, but they keep the map details quiet to protect him. One member also passed along a list of foods that can be dangerous for raccoons, including chocolate, coffee, avocado, onions, garlic, and processed sugars.

Let Jimothy Keep Being Jimothy

The urge to rescue him is understandable, and experts say it’s the wrong instinct here. Logsdon’s advice is simple. He seems to be doing reasonably well where he is, so the recommendation is to leave him there. Take your pictures and video from a distance if you happen to spot him, then move along. Offering him food or supplemental feeding is more likely to cause harm than do good.

That’s a good rule for any urban wildlife encounter, famous or not. Habituating raccoons to people rarely ends well for the animal. Jimothy has a family, a neighborhood, and apparently enough scrappiness to outrun a camera. He earned his internet fame by simply existing. The rest of us can return the favor by watching, laughing, and staying out of his way.